Ancient Hindu civilisation and mathematics

By Dr R.N. Das

The ancient Hindu sages discovered the miracles of modern scientific tools. Believe it or
not, the following are the glorious examples of them.

I. The Concept of Zero

The concept of zero came from the revered Hindu sages in Vedic times thousands of
years ago.

Without the concept of zero the binary system is blind. No counting, no commerce or no
computer business. The earliest documented "date"
was found in today's Gujarat [BC 585-586] in an inscription on Sankedia copper plate. In
Brahamaphuta—Siddhanta of Brahamagupta (7th century CE), zero was lucidly
explained. Muslim invaders from Central Asia crossing the Hindukush mountain ranges
invaded Bharat 1300 years ago and plundered its beauty, riches, books, thrones and what
not. They plagued the holy land with sword, loot, arson and rape and destroyed and
ravaged the whole land in the name of jehad and "Allah". There was no Steven Spielberg
(Schindler's List) like cinema director who could document this sordid past of our history.

There was no patent system at that time. Might was right. They considered those
substances of robbery maal-e-ganimat (booty looted from kafirs to be distributed among
themselves and friends of
theirs) and thus inculcated those invaluable theorems of mathematics, astronomy and
geometry in Arabic books in around 770- 1200 CE. From there, those extraordinary
concepts were carried to Spanish Europe in the 8th century. However the concept of zero
was referred to as shunya in the early Sanskrit texts of the 4th century BC and was clearly
explained in Pingala's Chand Sutra of the 2nd century too.

II. The Contribution to Astronomy

Hindu sages told modern scientists how to map the sky in terms of glaring stars almost
4000 years ago. Copernicus published his theory of revolution of the Earth around the
Sun in 1543 AD only. But our Aryabhatta in the 5th century had stated that the Earth
revolves around the Sun in these specific words: "Just as a person boarding on a boat
feels that the trees on the banks are moving, people on the revolving earth also feel that
the sun is moving". Such illustrious teaching of astronomy was rarely seen in the
contemporary writings of the Greek astronomers. In his Aryabhatteem, he clearly stated
that our Earth was round and it rotated on its own axis, orbited the Sun and was
suspended in the space. It also explained that the lunar and solar eclipses occurred by the
interplay of the shadows of the Sun, the Moon and the Earth.

III. The Law of Gravity

The Law of Gravity was known to the ancient Hindu astronomer Bhaskaracharya. In his
Surya Siddhanta he noted: "Objects fall on the Earth due to force of attraction of the
Earth. Therefore, the Earth, planets, constellations, the Moon, and the Sun are all held in
the galaxy due to this great cosmic attraction."

It was in 1687—1200 years later—that Sir Isaac Newton discovered (re-

discovered?) the Law of Gravity, which was already invented by the greatest Hindu
astronomer Bhaskaracharya, of course which was written in the holiest language,
Sanskrit.

IV. The Invention of Trikonmiti

The word geometry seems to have emerged from the Sanskrit word gyaamiti, which
means measuring the Earth. And the word trigonometry is similar to trikonmiti meaning
measuring triangular forms.

Euclid was famous for the invention of geometry in 300 BC whilst the concept of
trikonmiti had emerged in 1000 BC in Bharat. It is evident lucidly from today's "practice
of making fire alters (at homagni kshetra) in different shapes, e.g., round, triangular,
hexagonal, pentagonal, square and rectangular". It was part and parcel of daily pujas and
homagnis in ancient times. The treatise of Surya Siddhanta (4th century) described in
fascinating details about trigonometry, which was introduced in Europe by Briggs 1200
years later in the 16th century.

V. The Invention of Infinity

The value of "Pi" was first invented by the ancient sages of Bharat.
The ratio of circumference and diameter of a circle is known as "Pi"
which gives its value as 3.14592657932. ..

The old Sanskrit text Baudhayna Sulbha Sutra of the 6th century BC mentioned that
above-mentioned ratio as approximately equalled to that of Aryabhatta's ratio [in 499 BC]
worked out the value of "Pi"
to the fourth decimal place as [3x (177/1250) = 3.1416]. Many centuries later, in 825 AD,
Arab mathematician, Mohammed Ibn Musa
admitted: "This value of "Pi" was given by the Hindus (62832/20,000 = 3.1416 )."

VI. Baudhayna's Sulbha Sutra versus Pythagoras's Theorem

The famous Pythagoras's theorem states: "The square of the hypotenuse angled triangle
equals to the sum of the two sides." This theorem was actually discovered by Euclid in
300 BC but Greek writers attributed this to Pythagoras. But the irony of fate is that our
so-called intellectuals (indeed Macaulay's sons who have forgotten their old but rich and
glorious ancient Hindu heritage) had also accepted that theorem as a contribution of
Pythagoras. They never read or tried to know that Baudhayna's Sulbha Sutra which has
been existing for many thousands of years (written in the Sanskrit) had already described
lucidly the theorem as follows: "The area produced by the diagonal of a rectangle is equal
to the sum of the area produced by it on two sides."

VII. The Measurement of Time or Time Scale

In Surya Siddhanta, Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the Earth to revolve
around the Sun up to the 9th decimal place.
According to Bhaskaracharya's calculation it is 365.258756484 days.

Modern scientist accepted a value of the same time as 365.2596 days.

The difference between the two observations made by ancient Hindu sage
Bhaskaracharya just by using his super brain (in the 4th century AD) and today's NASA
(National Aeronautic and Space Agency) scientists of America by using super computer
(in the 20th century
AD) is only 0.00085, i.e., 0.0002 per cent of difference.

The ancient Bharatbhoomi had given the world the idea of the smallest and largest
measuring units of Time. In modern time, only Stephen Hockings, Cambridge University
Professor of theoretical physics, had the courage to venture into the abysmal depth of the
eternity of Time. Astonishingly, our ancient sages taught us the following units of time:

Krati =34,000th of a second

Truti =300th of a second
2 Truti =1 Luv
2 Luv = 1 Kshana
30 Kshana =1 Vipal
60 Vipal = 1 Pal
60 Pal = 1 Ghadi (=24 Minutes)
2.5 Ghadi = 1 Hora (=1 Hour)
24 Hora = 1 Divas (1 Day)
7 Divas = 1 Saptah (1 Week)
4 Saptah = 1 Maas (1 Month)
2 Maas = 1 Ritu (1 Season)
6 Ritu = 1 Varsha (1 Year)
100 Varsha = 1 Satabda (1 Century)
10 Shatabda = 1 Saharabda
432 Saharabda = 1Yug(Kali Yuga))
2 Yuga = 1 Dwapar Yuga
3 Yuga = 1 Treta Yuga
4 Yuga = Kruta Yuga
10 Yuga = 1 Maha Yuga (4,320,000)
1000 Maha Yuga = 1 Kalpa
1 Kalpa = 4.32 Billion Years.
Therefore, the lowest was 34,000th of a second known as krati and the highest of the
measurement of the Time was known as kalpa, which equalled to 4.32 billion years. Is it
not amazing? Are you not feeling proud to be a Hindu descendent? Swami Vivekananda,
the modern sage of Bharat, stated in his famous sermons compiled in his Rousing Call to
the Hindu Nation, "Take pride in Hinduism; pronounce yourselves as a descendant of a
Hindu. Boast to be a Hindu and give a clarion call to rouse the Hindu nation from its
lethargy and slumber."

VIII. The Invention of Decimal System

It was the ancient Bharatbhoomi that gave us the ingenious methods of expressing all the
numbers by means of 10 symbols (decimal systems)—an invaluable and gorgeous idea
that escaped the genius of Archimedes and Apollonius, two of the greatest Greek
philosophers and mathematician produced by antiquity (100-130BC).

The highest prefix used for raising 10 to the power in today's mathematics is "D" for
1030 (for Greek Deca).While as early as 100 BC Hindu mathematicians had exact names
for figures up to 1053.

a. Ekam = 1

b. Dashkam = 10 (101)

c. 1 Shatam = 100 (102)

d. 10 Shatam = 1 Shahashram = 1000 (103)

e. 10 Dash Shahashram = 10,000 (104)

f. Laksha = 100,000 (105)

g. Dash Laksha = 10,00,000 (106)

h. Kotihi = 10, 00, 0000 (107)

i. Ayutam = 100,000,000 (109)

j. Niyutam = 100,000,000, 000 (1011)

k. Kankaram = 10,000,000,000, 000 (1013)

l. Vivaram = 10,000,000,000, 000,000 (1016)

m. Pararadahaa = 1017

n. Nivahata = 1019
o. Utsangaha = 1021

p. Bahulam = 1023

q. Naagbaalaha = 1025

r. Titlambam = 1027

s. Vyavasthaanapragnap tihi = 1029

t. Hetuhellam = 1031

u. Karahuhu = 1033

v. Hetvindreeyam = 1035

w. Sampaata Lambhaha = 1037

x. Gananaagatihi = 1039

y. Niravadyam = 1041

z. Mudraabalam = 1043

aa. Saraabalam = 1045

ab. Vishamagnagatihi = 1047

ac. Sarvagnaha = 1049

ad. Vibhutangaama = 1051

ae. Tallakshanaam = 1053

Is it not amazing to know that the ancient Hindu sages used to remember them just by
using their outstanding memory power or was there some super computer known to them
also, which we are quite unaware of?

In Anuyogadwar Sutra, written 100 BC, one numeral had been shown to be raised to as
high as 10140 which is beyond our outmost stretches of imagination. All of our
remaining hidden treasures, which had not been destroyed or stolen by the foreign
mercenaries and invaders, were written in Sanskrit, mother of all languages, which
should be revived. It is our legacy to inherit such rich property that our forefather had left
for us by their meticulous observations over thousands of years ago.

All hidden treasures are written in Sanskrit, which we are quite ignorant of and our so-
called Macaulay's sons are trying their best to prevent us from knowing about our
glorious past. Sir Monier- Williams rightly said: "Hindus are perhaps the only nation,
except the Greeks, who have investigated independently and in true scientific manner, the
general laws that govern the evolution of languages."

There was no patent system at that time. Might was right. They considered those
substances of robbery maal-e-ganimat (booty looted from kafirs to be distributed among
themselves and friends of
theirs) and thus inculcated those invaluable theorems of mathematics, astronomy and
geometry in Arabic books in around 770- 1200 CE.

More than this, the Hindus had made considerable advances in astronomy, algebra,
arithmetics, botany and medicine, not to mention their superiority in grammar, long
before some of these sciences were cultivated by the most ancient nations of Europe.

Indeed, Hindus were Spinozists 2000 years before the birth of Spinoza, Darwinians many
centuries before the birth of Darwin, and evolutionists, centuries before the doctrine of
evolution had been accepted by Aldus Huxley's of our times, and before any word like
evolution existed in any language in this world.

We should take a vow to work together to search those hidden treasures out, propagate
the notion that Sanskrit is not a dead language. Sanskrit is the elite of the elitist, classic of
the classics and it should be revived once again. We will again sit in the seat of the world
assembly with our head held high and with pride. I would like to draw the final touch
with the quotation from Swami Vivekananda, "I do not see into the future nor do I care to
see. But one vision I see clear as life before me, that the ancient Mother has awakened
once more sitting on her throne rejuvenated, more glorious than ever. Proclaim her to all
the world with the voice of peace and benediction."

(The writer is Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Manipal Teaching Hospital,

Pokhara, Nepal,