REPORT FILE

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT
JECRC UNIVERSITY

TOPIC – Indian classical Dance and Music

Presented By:-
Pratham Torani
Reg. no. – 21BBAN157
Section – A

INTRODUCTION
One of the oldest civilizations in the world, the Indian civilization has a
strong tradition of science and technology. Ancient India was a land of
sages and seers as well as a land of scholars and scientists. Research has
shown that from making the best steel in the world to teaching the
world to count, India was actively contributing to the field of science
and technology centuries long before modern laboratories were set up.
Many theories and techniques discovered by the ancient Indians have
created and strengthened the fundamentals of modern science and
technology. While some of these groundbreaking contributions have
been acknowledged, some are still unknown to most.
 Ancient India was a land of great scientists. India was actively contributing
to the field of science and technology centuries long before modern
laboratories were set up.
 Many theories and techniques discovered by the ancient Indians.
 Here is a list of 6 contributions, made by ancient Indians to the world of
science and technology.

1.The Idea of Zero :-

Little needs to be written about the mathematical digit ‘zero’, one of
the most important inventions of all time. Mathematician Aryabhata
was the first person to create a symbol for zero and it was through his
efforts that mathematical operations like addition and subtraction
started using the digit, zero. The concept of zero and its integration into
the place-value system also enabled one to write numbers, no matter
how large, by using only ten symbols. Some scholars assert that the
Babylonian concept wove its way down to India, but others, including
those at the Zero Project, give Indians credit for developing numerical
zero independently. "We are of the view that in ancient India are found
numerous so-called 'cultural antecedents' that make it plausible that
the mathematical zero digit was invented there," said Gobets, whose
organization is composed of academics and graduate students devoted
to studying the development of zero in India. "The Zero Project
hypothesizes that mathematical zero ('shunya', in Sanskrit) may have
arisen from the contemporaneous philosophy of emptiness or
Shunyata," said Gobets. If philosophical and cultural factors found in
India were important to the development of zero as a mathematical
concept, it would explain why other civilizations did not develop zero as
a mathematical concept, said van der Hoek.
According to the book "The Crest of the Peacock; Non-\European Roots
of Mathematics," by Dr. George Gheverghese Joseph, the concept of
zero first appeared in India around A.D. 458. Joseph suggests that the
Sanskrit word for zero, śūnya, which meant "void" or "empty" and
derived from the word for growth, combined with the early definition
found in the Rig-veda of "lack" or "deficiency." The derivative of the
two definitions is Śūnyata, a Buddhist doctrine of "emptiness," or
emptying one's mind from impressions and thoughts.
"From this philosophy, we think that a numeral to use in mathematical
equations developed," said van der Hoek. "We are looking for the
bridge between Indian philosophy and mathematics.

2. Binary Numbers :-
Binary numbers is the basic language in which computer programs are
written. Binary basically refers to a set of two numbers, 1 and 0, the
combinations of which are called bits and bytes. The binary number
system was first described by the Vedic scholar Pingala, in his book
Chandahśāstra, which is the earliest known Sanskrit treatise on prosody
( the study of poetic metres and verse).
Binary numbers form the basis for the operation of computers. Binary
numbers were discovered in the west by German mathematician
Gottfried Leibniz in 1695. However, new evidence proves that binary
numbers were used in India prior to 2nd century A.D., more than 1500
years before their discovery in the west.
Ancient India had a tradition of scholarly learning. This tradition
continued till the beginning of current millennium. During the
millennium long foreign rule hostile to scholarly activities, a vast body
of scientific information was lost. Thankfully some of the ancient
literature has survived. Most of the scholarly work needed to preserve
the ancient learning was done in South India which remained free from
invasion for a significant time. Scholars are now rediscovering the
forgotten contributions of ancient India in the field of mathematics and
science. One of these discoveries is that of the use of Binary numbers
for the classification of meters.
The source of this discovery is a text of music by Pingala named
"Chhandahshastra" meaning science of meters. This text falls under the
category of "Sutra" or aphorismic statements. Detailed discussions of
these short but profound statements are found in later commentaries.
"Chhandahshastra" can be conservatively dated to 2nd century A.D.
The main commentaries on "Chhandahshastra" are "Vrittaratnakara" by
Kedara in probably 8th century, "Tatparyatika" by Trivikrama in 12th
century and "Mritasanjivani" by Halayudha in 13th century. The full
significance of Pingala's work can be understood by the explanations
found in these three commentaries.

3. A Theory of Atom :-
One of the notable scientists of the ancient India was Kanad who is said
to have devised the atomic theory centuries before John Dalton was
born. He speculated the existence of anu or a small indestructible
particles, much like an atom. He also stated that anu can have two
states — absolute rest and a state of motion. He further held that
atoms of same substance combined with each other in a specific and
synchronized manner to produce dvyanuka (diatomic molecules) and
tryanuka (triatomic molecules).
When asked, who proposed the theory of atoms, in most textbooks
John Dalton is given the credit. However in reality John Dalton was not
the first person to come up with the idea of atoms. This idea had been
proposed in both Ancient Greece and Ancient India more that 2000
years before John Dalton. John Dalton just made the idea more
concrete and in tune with the modern scientific knowledge. Now
although in popular science Ancient Greeks are given the credit for
coming up with the idea of atoms, these works are generally quiet on
the works of Indians.
Lets us get into more details of what was the ancient Indian atomic
theory. The Indian atomic theory was proposed by Maharishi Kanada
who was the founder of Vaisheshika school of philosophy. We will
cover Vaisheshika school of Philosophy as part of Indian philosophy
series later, so there you will be able to learn about this theory through
a philosophical perspective. Here we will focus mostly in terms of the
physical sciences perspective.
Kanada was as much a natural scientist as he was a philosopher.
According to Kanada if you take a physical object and start to subdivide
it into smaller and smaller pieces a time will come when you would
have broken it down to an entity beyond, which it cannot be subdivided
any further. This entity is what he called Paramanu or atom. There are
some very interesting inferences that he drew about the properties of
atom through observation and logic.
Kanada mentioned that the atom must be invisible because it will be
very small for us to be able to observe it. There are so many
observations that could have caused Kanada to conclude this. One
example is the observation of tiny particles in the sun light. You can
observe these particles when under sunlight but if you remove the
sunlight you can no longer observe them. Another observation could
have been the evaporation of water, where on applying heat the water
turns into steam and then the atoms of water are no longer observable.
Considering such breaking down of big objects into smaller one, Kanada
concluded that the atoms are eternal and cannot be destroyed.
Whenever anything comes into existence it come through the coming
together of these atoms, which arrange themselves in a certain way to
give that thing its characteristics, such as color, taste, smell etc. When
that thing is destroyed, it breaks down into its constituent atoms. The
thing no longer exists but the atoms that made that thing still exist and
can rearrange differently to manifest something else. So these bigger
objects which are the collections of atoms keep coming into existence
and then get destroyed but the fundamental building blocks of things,
the atoms, always stay in existence and are never destroyed. Kanada
also stated that by changing the environmental conditions the
arrangement of atoms changes, which alters its properties such as
color, taste, touch and smell. The most obvious such environmental
agent he considered was heat as in how on heating the earthen pot it
becomes black causing change in color and a fruit ripens causing a
change in taste.
Kanada theorized that the atoms must be spherical in shape. He came
to this conclusion by arguing that since atoms are the fundamental
building blocks of every material thing in this world, therefore their
property must not have a directional dependence on its properties. If
this is that case then its shape must also not have a directional
dependence and therefore it must be spherical in shape. He also
postulated four types of atoms in Kanada sutra, which were associated
with four of the five material elements (Panchamahabhuta) i.e earth,
water, air and fire. Akasha, which is the fifth element, was postulated
not to be made up of atoms. All the material things in this world are a
combination of these five elements (Panchamahabhuta) and therefore
are made up of these four types of atoms.
Finally Kanada also mentioned that these atoms could combine with
each other to form molecules. When two atoms of same element
combined with each other he called it Dwinuka and when three of them
combined then he called it Trinuka.

4.Smelting of Zinc :-
India was the first to smelt zinc by the distillation process, an advanced technique derived

from a long experience of ancient alchemy.

The ancient Persians had also attempted to reduce zinc oxide in an open furnace but had

failed.

Zawar in the Tiri valley of Rajasthan is the world’s first known ancient zinc smelting site.

The distillation technique of zinc production goes back to the 12th Century AD and is an

important contribution of India to the world of science.

There are few metals, which are produced by the reduction distillation
technique, and zinc is one of them. Craddock et al (1985) have
mentioned that distillation technology and apparatus were used in
ancient times in India for the process of distillation of water, wine,
mercury and zinc. The process used for the distillation of zinc in Zawar
mines is unique because it is designed on the basis of downward
distillation. After the sizing and beneficiation, the ore was mixed with
charcoal dust and fired in to a heap to convert it in to oxide. This
roasted ore was again mixed with more charcoal powder, salt and
borax as flux and thoroughly mixed with cow dung and water, then
made in to balls of 5 to 10mm diameter by hand rolling. These pellets
were dried in sun and then filled into the brinjal shaped retorts. The
retorts are of two sizes with capacity of 750 and 2000cc. In the
excavation at Zawar region these retorts have been found. Each
distillation unit had two parts, a lower condensing chamber and upper
main furnace chamber. The lower chamber was square in plan and
separated by perforated bricks from the upper chamber, which was in
the form of a truncated pyramid. The internal dimensions of the
furnaces (taken from furnaces 3 and 4) at the base were 660mm ´
690mm, being slightly wider across the side with the entrance to the
lower chamber. The division between lower chamber and the furnace
proper was made by four of the perforated bricks (55mm thick), fitting
closely together and resting (but not mortared) on a projecting brick
ledge at the side with a single clay peg providing support in the centre.
The use of a peg was necessary to reduce absorption to a minimum as
the lower chamber, which contained the collecting vessels, was entered
through just one small opening. Each of the perforated bricks had 9
large (35 mm diameter) holes to accommodate the condenser necks
and 26 smaller holes (plus 9 shared with neighbouring bricks) for the
passage of air into the furnace and for ash to drop through (Craddock
et al, 1985: 45-52).

5. Plastic Surgery:-
 Written by Sushruta in 6th Century BC, Sushruta Samhita is considered to be one of the

most comprehensive textbooks on ancient surgery.

The text mentions various illnesses, plants, preparations and cures along with complex

techniques of plastic surgery.

The Sushruta Samhita ’s most well-known contribution to plastic surgery is the


reconstruction of the nose, known also as rhinoplasty.

uring the 6th Century BCE, an Indian physician named Sushruta – widely
regarded in India as the ‘father of surgery’ – wrote one of the world’s
earliest works on medicine and surgery. The Sushruta Samhita
documented the etiology of more than 1,100 diseases, the use of
hundreds of medicinal plants, and instructions for performing scores of
surgical procedures – including three types of skin grafts and
reconstruction of the nose.
Skin grafts entail transplanting pieces of skin from one part of the body
to another. Sushruta’s treatise provides the first written record of a
forehead flap rhinoplasty, a technique still used today, which a full-
thickness piece of skin from the forehead is used to reconstruct a nose.
At that time, patients in need of that procedure generally included
those who had lost their noses as punishment for theft or adultery.
Today, surgeons use skin grafts to restore areas that have lost
protective layers of tissue due to trauma, infection, burns, as well as to
restore areas where surgical intervention has created a loss of skin, as
can happen with melanoma removal. Some grafts include blood vessels
and muscle, such as in reconstructive breast surgery.
Amazingly, these techniques are all explained in the Sushruta Samhita.

6. Ayurveda :-
 Long before the birth of Hippocrates, Charaka authored a foundational text,

Charakasamhita, on the ancient science of Ayurveda.

Referred to as the Father of Indian Medicine, Charaka was was the first physician to

present the concept of digestion, metabolism and immunity in his book.

Charaka’s ancient manual on preventive medicine remained a standard work on the subject

for two millennia and was translated into many foreign languages, including Arabic and

Latin.

India is known for its traditional medicinal systems—Ayurveda, Siddha,

and Unani. Medical systems are found mentioned even in the ancient
Vedas and other scriptures. The Ayurvedic concept appeared and
developed between 2500 and 500 BC in India. The literal meaning of
Ayurveda is “science of life,” because ancient Indian system of health
care focused on views of man and his illness. It has been pointed out
that the positive health means metabolically well-balanced human
beings. Ayurveda is also called the “science of longevity” because it
offers a complete system to live a long healthy life. It offers programs to
rejuvenate the body through diet and nutrition. It offers treatment
methods to cure many common diseases such as food allergies, which
have few modern treatments. However, one should be aware that
Ayurvedic nutrition is not a “magic bullet” system but requires the full
participation of the patient to succeed. It is an interactive system that is
user-friendly and educational. It teaches the patient to become
responsible and self-empowered. Ayurveda is not a nutritional system
for those seeking an escape or excuse to further abuse their body or
mind. It is a system for empowerment, a system of freedom, and long
life. Food is the major source for serving the nutritional needs, but with
growing modernization some traditional methods are being given
up .Hence, the modern food habits are affecting the balanced nutrition.
There is an ever widening gap in nutrient intake due to which normal
life is no longer normal. However, affluence of working population with
changing lifestyles and reducing affordability of sick care, in terms of
time and money involved, are some of the forces that are presently
driving people towards thinking about their wellness.

Reference-
 https://www.thebetterindia.com/63119/ancient-india-science-technology/

 https://www.dhyeyaias.com/current-affairs/articles/science-and-technology-in-

ancient-india

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

History_of_science_and_technology_in_the_Indian_subcontinent

Thank You