Ancient Indian Science

Introduction 

It would be quite surprising for the average westerner when he or she is told that the scientific achievements that the European countries have been credited with since the past few decades were commonly practiced in India centuries before! The countries in the Asian continent, particularly India and China, were well advanced in various scientific disciplines when most of Europe was lost in the dark ages. In fact historians are coming out with proof to show that scientific credits were given to most western scientists simply because the ancient Indian texts could not be either understood by the west, or effectively popularized by those who handled them in India.

Analysis 

It would seem surprising that India, which was repeatedly attacked and colonized by foreigners maintained her rich cultural traditions intact for thousands of years. All the scientific knowledge that India possessed were part and parcel of this culture, and hence they too remained intact with their respective custodians. Perhaps it is the immense bonding between culture, religion and scientific spirit of the Hindus that has helped them to keep the treasures of their scientific knowledge intact.

Ancient Indian Mathematics

The range of mathematical discoveries made by the ancient Indians affects most of the basic knowledge that we have in our lives. The influence of the Indian scientific knowledge had affected many other countries as well. The best example would be the misnamed 'Arabic' numerals, which is in fact is a contribution of Indian scientists. The very basic principles of mathematics had originated and then been perfected in India. The Arabic scholars often referred to the now famous ‘Arabic numerals’ as "Hindsaa", which means "from India (Hindustan)"