Ancient India, Bharat

BHARAT

ARE WE LIVING UP TO OUR LEGACY!?

Without an iota of doubt, we can easily say that Bharat is the greatest and foremost civilization of all times which has stood the test of times.

Be it in inventions, trade, empires, science, architecture, medicine, or mathematics, Bharat was a leader and way ahead of its times.

There was a time in Bharat when we’ve had:

• hundred percent literacy fully funded by the state,
• a perfect administrative system,
• no poverty,
• utopian cities with immaculate city plans,
• highly efficient administrative systems,
• blooming exports,  
• the highest GDP,
• the most magnificent architecture,
• peace, harmony,
• a perfectly supportive environment for discoveries and thoughts
• absolutely no religious intolerance, hunger, or diseases.

Sounds like a dream, right?

But it was true.

Where is that Bharat now!!??

Even the world’s first universities were in Bharat where thousands of students from all around the world could come and study absolutely free of cost.

The world’s oldest surviving religions are also from Bharat, which has endured to this day. Many attempts at destroying them have been made, but they stand strong and proud.

Bharat was the world’s best country in all aspects during ancient times. We have made some great inventions and discoveries like numerical value and applications of pie, trigonometry, the calculation of the speed of light, chess, rotational movements of the earth, Pythagoras theorem, modern number system, chess… The list goes on and on.

Even the world’s oldest and largest civilization is Indian, the Indus valley civilization, it was also the world’s largest civilization spread over an area of 1.25 million square kilometers (around half the size of today’s India) and which started around ten thousand years ago.

Six-percentage of the world’s languages and the origin of many other languages are Indian, especially Indo-European and Indo-Iranian scripts.

We have had the greatest scientists:

1.Sushruta: A prominent ancient Indian physician aka, “father of plastic surgery”, who invented plastic and cataract surgeries. He was futuristic in his approach. We use his surgical methods even up to this date.

2. Aryabhatta: The greatest astronomer who invented zero, which can be termed as the path-breaking mathematics invention, and studied the earth’s movement around the Sun. He had discovered 2000 years ago that the earth moves around the sun!!!!

3. Baudhayan: He had discovered and written the famous Pythagoras theorem 1000 years before Pythagoras!!!! I don’t even know why It’s known as Pythagoras’ theorem; it should be Baudhayans theorem, a veritable genius indeed.

4. Brahmgupta: The inventor of the modern 1-9 number system. (Aryabhata invented zero)

5. Nagarjuna: A alchemist and metallurgist. He had ages ago discovered extraction techniques of gold and mercury from its ores.

If there was a noble prize in earlier times, Bharata would have easily dominated it for thousands of years.

Wonders of Indian Metallurgy

The iron pillar near the Qutub Minar in Delhi was built two thousand years ago by the ironworkers in India. They had developed a process that prevented iron from rusting. It has no stain of rust on it to date!! Magic indeed. A feat that was way ahead of its times. The iron pillar is eight meters high and weighs six tons!!

Indian mathematics:

Most of the modern mathematics which we use today was actually invented in Bharat. Trigonometry, complex numbers, algebra, negative numbers, the definition of sine and cosine, Baudhayan theorem, units, and measurement systems. Even the first scales were invented in India.

Some more important inventions are matrices, inverse trigonometry, values of irrational square roots and pie, tangents, quadratic equations, geometry….. it’s an unending list

Complex Math was basically a subject invented & practiced in Bharat.

Indian Astronomy and Physics:

We, all are familiar with Newton’s Laws of Motion that Sir Isaac Newton, the physicist who formulated the laws of motion first in 1687. But before Newton, Indian scientist Rishi Kanaad who penned Vaisheshika Sutra in 600 BCE discovered the laws which describe the relationship between force and motion. The world acknowledges that Newton was the first to discover the gravitational concepts. You will be surprised to know that the theory of gravitation was created 1200 years before Newton by an Indian Mathematician Bhaskaracharya. He explained that gravity is a universal force that allows the mass of a body to attract other masses of bodies. The bigger a mass of a body, the higher will be the force of gravity. Objects stay on earth because of the gravitational pull. Every single body in the universe is affected by gravitational forces which also include the earth, sun, and the moon. The gravitational pull of the moon creates tidal waves. Sun’s gravitational pull keeps all the planets in the orbit. Earth’s gravity allows it to revolve around the sun. Bhaskaracharya was one of the most prominent astronomers and mathematicians of the 12th century. He is also considered the greatest mathematician from the medieval era. He is known amongst the theorist for discovering principles in astronomy and calculus. He published “Siddhānta Śiromaṇī” at the age of 36 in 1150 AD. He also contributed to “Surya Siddhanta” which was originally written by Aryabhatta. The first principle of gravity was stated by Bhaskaracharya and not Newton. Bhaskaracharya stated the laws of gravity in the book Surya Siddhanta in the 11th century, the law actually existed even before the birth of Sir Isaac Newton (Newton was born in the 16th century).

Here there are some of the shlokas from Surya Siddhanta, an ancient scripture, that mentions how gravitation works:

madhye samantandasya bhugolovyomni tisthati

bibhranahparamam saktim brahmano dharanatmikam || 32||

 -Surya Sidhantha, chapter 12 verse 32.

The spherical earth stands at its center in space due to the dharanatmikam Sakti

which prevents the earth from falling away and helps it to stand firm|| 32 ||

akrsta saktisca mahi taya yat svastham guru svabhimukham

svasaktya akrsyatetatpatativa bhati same samantatkva patatviyam khe ||6||

-Sidhanta Shiromani,

Bhuvanakosa, 6th shloka

Every object falls on the ground due to the earth’s force of attraction.

This force allows the sun, earth, moon, and constellations to stay in the orbit||6||

More facts

 Even the earth’s angular momentum and many more astronomical discoveries were made in Bharat.

These were just a few samples of our great innovative mind and intelligence. If I start to mention everything I would need 10000s of TBytes.

The thing that baffles me the most is that most of us, Bharatiyas, don’t even know of our glorious heritage & contributions. We just assume that we have done nothing and we act like simpletons and westward looking. Well, in reality, most of our modern world concepts, lifestyle, and inventions were made in Bharat a thousand years ago. I don’t want to boast or show off about anything, but at least we should know our greatness and keep our morale and confidence high.

At that time the scientists and inventors of Bharat had no interest to be famous or rich using that knowledge, which they believed God had given, also the concept of the patent didn’t exist, therefore most of the discoveries that were made by then don’t even have their name.

Today’s development of science and technology is based mostly on the knowledge of ancient India. Many instruments, machines, missiles, laws, etc. described especially in Srimad Bhagavata Gita and other epics are yet to be invented/ discovered. If we give importance to the knowledge of our ancient science in every sphere of our lives, we can rid the society and human race of all evils existing today. Our ancient science can certainly play a pivotal role in shaping our present and future development. Our past glory needs to be revived with some innovative ideas. The government can create a special research team with full facilities to explore the knowledge of ancient India like administration, science, architecture & more. Many scientists in the world have accepted that the books of ancient India, especially Srimad Bhagavata Gita written before the Vedic period and subsequently translated into many languages, are full of vast knowledge. When the scientists of the rest of the world have benefitted from the knowledge of ancient India and discovered/invented many new laws and instruments, why are we lagging behind them when everything is at our disposal. We can easily tap into a vast reservoir of our heritage and knowledge and bring back the glory and prestige that was ours not so long back.

Even our textile industry was world-famous, in ancient Greek and roman scriptures we can find mention of how good Indian clothes were, light as woven air. It was like a premium fabric much sought after by European royalty.

Upto until 1700 Bharat’s GDP occupied podium spot in the world market!! For thousands of years, we were the richest, most intelligent, strongest, and wisest. Our achievements are just magnificent and substantial.

Even some of the world’s greatest rulers were from Bharat:

1. The Mauryas:

They were one of the first clans which had united Bharat, formed by the genius of the most intelligent person who ever lived-Chanakya. They had stopped Alexander’s army from entering Bharat and also had defeated many more Invaders. Their kingdom was one of the largest in the World in their time encompassing most of the modern-day south and central Asia. Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty was the first king in the world to ban slavery in his kingdom.

2. Ahom dynasty:

They had ruled Assam for nearly eight-hundred years. They trounced Mughals eighteen times!! And the British army once later lost their territory to Burmese kings.

3. Samudra Gupta: (of the Gupta dynasty)

During the Gupta reign in Bharat, we prospered. Many inventions happened, lots of temples built, a perfectly peaceful, ideal society and nation, somewhat like a utopia. He had also conquered the Indian subcontinent and performed the legendary Ashvamedha Yagna.

4. The Cholas:

They were from today’s Tamilnadu region and were one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the world!! They ruled from 400 BCE to 1200 AD!! That’s a swishing 1600 years!!

Ruling over the largest kingdom of their time, which extended up to Malaysia, they conquered most of the lower part of Asia. Tamilnadu had prospered greatly under their banner.

5. The Vijaynagar empire:

They reigned over the entire Southern part of Hindustan in the 1300s. Their rule is known to be prosperous, affluent, and booming. The ruins of the kingdom are still present in Hampi, Karnataka, having been granted the tag of a world heritage site. One should go there after Corona gets over to truly grasp the grandeur and scale of the architecture and city planning. 

This was just a quick brief about ancient India’s greatness, which was and still is unparalleled by all means and just way ahead of its times. Bharat has the richest legacy and history, most of which is forgotten and erased today. It was burnt by many invaders, and then the Britishers erased and tampered with it. But now it’s up to us millennials to march ahead and reclaims the lost glory and eminent position that Bharat is entitled to, it’s high time we should at least know of our greatness and position up to 1700 AD, the greatest, richest, strongest, and wisest people by all means. Some ignorant and misinformed fools may think that everything is made up and only the west is right, but just to remind them, all the information is available in ancient scriptures, which can be verified. The west, have indeed done great work, building upon ancient Indian knowledge, they have made, many inventions and discoveries, but the base of all the inventions and discoveries are from Hindustan, and I believe that all of us should at least know about our roots because if the roots are not firmly established the tree cannot grow. Strong roots result in a strong and firm tree. We have to bring back our legacy using modern methods.

A famous quote by Einstein “We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made!”

The biggest irony and grief are that we are unaware of our benefaction and greatness, we get disillusioned and lose even before the race starts. The dark age (from 1800AD onwards) is now over.

Stand up people and retrieve our legacy and prestige.

We need to work selflessly, wisely, and intellectually to reclaim the glory.

Let us all fulfill the dreams of our distinguished ancestors and forefather and make INDIA GREAT again.

BRING BACK OUR BHARAT, OUR LOST GLORY…

JAI HIND!! JAI BHARAT!!

Blog by,

Adithya Borad, 16.

A True Bharati Wasi.

Gold Coin pic Reference: wiki commons

Map

Indian manuscript

maurya

ahom

gupta

chola

Vijaynagar

Ref: American Journal of Engineering Research (AJER) 

Youtube: wion