Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c46.s4.7

v2.c46.s4.7

Āryabhaṭa (born AD 476) did not subscribe to the traditional notion of five elements. His denial of the fifth element, *ākāśa* or ether, was in accordance with the materialistic philosophy of the *Lokāyata*. (Bongard Levin, 1977) Bhāskara I (AD 629) and later Al-Beruni emphasized on Āryabhaṭa’s agnostic approach about the space which is not reached by the solar rays, and the notion ‘that which is not reached by perception is not knowable’. Āryabhaṭa’s theory of the Earth’s rotation around its axis and his scientific explanation for the solar and lunar eclipses invited hostility from those who believed in the earlier cosmogenic doctrines, but there is no evidence that he faced any theological inquisition like Galileo.