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A Concise History of Science in India c14.s2: Vedic Period

A Concise History of Science in India c14.s2

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English

Contents

Vedic Period

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This new set of people, sometimes referred to as the Aryans, made notable contributions to the development of science and technology in India, and from about the fifteenth century B.C. to about the eleventh or twelfth century A.D., the history of science in India is, by and large, that of their thoughts and religious practices, of their arts and crafts which took into their fold not a few of the locally existing thoughts and techniques which they encountered, reshaped and assimilated.

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*Ṛta*

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Of the principal Vedic thoughts which are of relevance to us, mention should be made of the natural law (*ṛta*) which finds adequate expression in the *Ṛgveda*. The Vedic seers conceived of this law as the real governing force of the universe and even the Vedic gods are considered to be either under the operation of this law or its guardians. The natural phenomena like the flow of rivers, occurrence of night and dawn, are explained in terms of this natural law. It is now known that there was among the Babyloniansa a conception of natural law with reference to divinity. Among the Greek thinkers, Heraclitus (*c.* sixth century B.C.), Democritus (*c.* fifth century B.C.), Plato (427–347 B.C.) and Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) are known to have given expression to the idea of natural law. A fact of great significance is that the importance given to and the role of *ṛta* in the movements governing the human world and the cosmic universe alike, as depicted in the *Ṛgveda* and the later Vedic literature, point out that the Vedic people had an instinctive conviction in the natural order—a conviction which is of prime importance for sustenance of scientific attitude (**9**, pp. 453–55).

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*Pañcabhūtas*

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Another doctrine which gradually took shape out of certain speculative layers of the Ṛgvedic thought and the early *Upaniṣads* is the one concerning the *pañcabhūtas*. Wholistic in nature, the fivefold character of the *pañcabhūtas*, viz. *pṛthvī*, *ap*, *tejas*, *vāyu* and *ākāśa*, aimed at a coherent explanation of the apparently unordered and seemingly diverse world of matter, qualities and motion. It was tacitly assumed that the five *bhūtas* to which belonged all the subtle and the gross, the perceptibles and the imperceptibles, and the limited and the unlimited, provided a base for rational interpretation of the problem of matter. With such wide application, the doctrine of the *pañcabhūtas* was able, as no other could, to permeate practically all the departments of Indian thinking and to become, as it did, an integrated component of the major philosophical systems. The *Sāṃkhya*, *Nyāya* and the *Vaiśeṣika* have laid a special emphasis on the *pañcabhūtas*, while the Jaina, Bauddha and Cārvāka recognize the first four *bhūtas*. Special mention should be made of the *Sāṃkhya* which in addition enumerates the five *tanmātras* or the subtile states corresponding to the five *bhūtas*. Perhaps the *tanmātras* were conceived so as to share the characteristics of both mind and matter. It is interesting to note that in the west the doctrine of five elements—earth, water, air, fire and ether—also played an important role in the Aristotelian interpretation of the universe and attracted the attention of thinkers in Europe as well as in West Asia for a long time. Nevertheless, the way in which the *pañcabhūta* doctrine became intertwined not only with the general inquiry into the intelligible reality but also with the notions concerning the human body merits special attention. It may be emphasized that the Indian classical medical texts are indeed one in describing the interplay of the five *bhūtas* in the organic as well as inorganic world. Human body is regarded as a combination of the *bhūtas* and of soul. In the *Suśruta Saṃhitā* there is an integrated exposition of the way in which the five *bhūtas* shape the human body from its very conception. The foodstuffs and other substances are classified in terms of the five *bhūtas*, as also the six *rasas* which, according to the classical medical texts, play an important role in the physiological processes. Such, then, was the viability of the doctrine of the *pañcabhūtas*, a proper understanding of which is absolutely essential for obtaining an insight into various facets of science in India (9, pp. 455–61).

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a Needham, II, pp. 533 ff.

Vedic Astronomy

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In the *Ṛgveda* are found certain symbolic hymns and references which throw ample light on the astronomical ideas of the Vedic Indians. Keen observers as they indeed were, the Vedic priests possessed adequate knowledge of the course of the sun, the path and phases of the moon, the bright wandering objects or the planets, the starry firmament, occurrences of eclipses and the like. Their intuitive minds developed a thought-pattern concerning the motion of the astronomical bodies. The moon became the obvious choice for determining the month and, in fact, the moon was referred to as *māsakṛta* (maker of month) similar to the modern word, month, being derived from the word ‘mooneth’. There were two systems of reckoning—the *amānta* and the *pūrṇimānta*. The *Ṛgveda* refers to a number of *nakṣatras* (asterisms) as well as the course of the moon through them. The names of the lunar months were after those of the *nakṣatras* in which the full moon occurred. Known as ‘lunar mansions’, the *nakṣatra* system seems to be characteristically Indian. For, according to Max Müller, ‘the Babylonian Zodiac was solar and, in spite of repeated researches, no trace of a lunar Zodiac has been found, where so many things have been found, in the cuneiform inscriptions. But supposing even that a lunar Zodiac has been discovered in Babylon, no one acquainted with the Vedic literature, and with the ancient Vedic ceremonial, would allow himself to be persuaded that the Hindus borrowed that simple division of the sky from the Babylonians’.a It must, however, be noted that there is some sort of an agreementb between the *nakṣatras* and the Chinese *hsius*, 28 in number, which were named after constellations with determinant stars. The Arabian *manazils*, again 28 in number, correspond, by and large, to the *nakṣatras*; and as many as 19 *manazils* are in agreement with the corresponding *nakṣatras*. But as a lunar Zodiac, the Chinese system appeared later (*c.* second century B.C.) and later still the Arabian *manazils*. The Indian *nakṣatras* are 27 or 28 in numberc (the *Atharvaveda* mentions 28 *nakṣatras*) and in each *nakṣatra*, the brightest star is referred to as *yoga-tārā*—a star connected with the first point on the ecliptic of the division or near it, north or south, but always being capable of occultated by the moon or in conjunction with the moon or planets. In effect, the *yoga-tārās* furnished the Vedic priests with the necessary means of observation (**2**, pp. 66–72).

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The priests whose reputation and survival in the Vedic society depended upon the performance of sacrificial rites at auspicious times had developed calendars which were luni-solar. In other words, they used the *nakṣatras* also to follow the motions of the sun, although they did not map the sky by the heliacal risings or settings of certain stars in the same way as the Babylonian or the Egyptian star-gazers did. Even so they were able to co-relate the motions of the moon and the sun in their own way. In course of time, a method of intercalation came into vogue and an additional month of 30 days (subsequently 25 or 26 days a month) was added at the end of a specific period, normally five years, for luni-solar adjustments. The length of the five-year period (5 × 360 = 1,800 days) was thus made up to 1,830, 1,825 or 1,826 (modern figure 1,826¼ days) (**2**, pp. 75–76). The lunar day, *tithi*, is again peculiar to Indian astronomy. The lunar month was divided into two *pakṣas* of 15 *tithis* each. The 30 *tithis* of the lunar month were found to overrun the days of the actual lunar month of 27 or 28 days. 'They were probably introduced merely to establish some sort of harmony between the revolutions of the sun and the moon, and to help trace the path of the moon through the *nakṣatras*. But since the apparent velocity of the moon (and hence the lunar day) is not uniform, the *tithis* were purely spatial abstractions.'a

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a Max Müller, p. 126.

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b Nine of the Indian *nakṣatras* agree with the corresponding *hsius* both in respect of the determinant stars and the number of stars associated with the constellations; for eleven *nakṣatras*, the determinants are different though they belong to the same constellations; for the remaining *nakṣatras* the determinants are selected from different constellations.

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c To *Abhijit*, the 28th *nakṣatra* (determinant two lyrae), no *nakṣatra* space has been assigned in the ecliptic.

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Another important aspect of the Vedic astronomy is the concept of a cosmic cycle associated with the cosmic creative spirit. According to the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*, Prajāpati's year consists of 10,800 moments. It would seem that this figure was derived from the 12 months, 30 nychthemera of each month and 30 moments of each nychthemeran (i.e. 12× 30× 30 = 10,800). The *Ṛgveda* has 10,800 metrical divisions of 40 syllables each, thus giving a figure of 432,000 (10,800× 40) syllables. This figure of 432,000 gave rise to an important astronomical period in the Siddhāntic astronomy later in India, in terms of a *mahāyuga* of 12,000 divine year being equivalent to 360 solar years (12,000× 360 = 4,320,000 years). It is interesting to note that in about the fifth century B.C. Heraclitus alluded to a Great Year of 10,800 years and Berossos, the Babylonian astronomer, spoke of a cosmic cycle of 432,000 years. 'These figures first appeared in India long after the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* was written, and although Greek and Babylonian astronomers were not otherwise greatly influenced by Indian ideas, they must have been in this respect.'b

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*Vedic Mathematics*

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The mathematical knowledge in the Vedic period seemed to be of a high order. That the numbers and their reckoning had a special appeal is clear from the fact that the *Yajurveda* has names of numbers even up to 10¹² and the *Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa* gives an account of numbers in ascending decimal scale. It is interesting to note that the highest terminology of the Greeks (which probably came into use by about the fourth century B.C.) was *myriad* (10⁴) and of the Romans was *mille* which denoted just a thousand (10³) only. It may be added that in some of the later Jaina and the Bauddha literature is found terminology to express numbers as large as 10²⁹ and 10⁵³ (**3**, pp. 140–41).

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A proper scientific vocabulary of number names was also developed so as to be permissive of operations including addition, subtraction and multiplication. Fundamental arithmetical operations involving elementary fractions were also known, as evidenced by the occurrence of such names, as *ardha* (½), *tripāda* (¾) in the *Ṛgveda*, and *pāda* (¼), *śapha* (⅛), *kuṣṭha* (1/12) and *kalā* (1/16) in the *Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā*. *Aṃśa* and *bhāga* denoting fractions in general occur in the *Śulba-sūtras* (**3**, pp. 143–44). In the field of geometry, the *Śulba-sūtras* (Rules of the Thread or Measuring Chord), which as part of the *Kalpa-sūtras* deal with sacrificial altar-constructions (*citi*) using a definite number of bricks of fixed dimensions, deserve special attention. Of them, mention may be made of *Baudhāyana*, *Vādhula*, *Āpastamba*, *Hiraṇyakeśin*, *Mānava*, *Vārāha* and *Kātyāyana*. They deal with positions and spatial magnitudes with reference to the construction of geometrical forms on which the sacrificial fires had to be raised. The other geometrical notions found in them include the construction of squares and rectangles, relation of the diagonal to the sides, and equivalent rectangles and squares. Both *Āpastamba* and *Baudhāyana* describe a square equal to the sum of two different squares like 3²+4²=5²; 5²+12²=13²; 8²+15²=17²; 7²+24²=25²; 12²+25²=37², etc. It is well known that according to the theorem attributed to Pythagoras (*c.* fifth century B.C.) ‘the transverse chord of a rectangle produces (by the construction of) a square on itself, what the length and the breadth produce separately’. According to the *Śulba-sūtras* the diagonal of a rectangle produces by itself both (the areas) produced separately by its two sides. No wonder then some western scholars share the view that the origin of the Pythogorean theorem can be traced to the Indian *Śulba-sūtras*.

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a Taton, p. 137.

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b Taton, pp. 137–38.

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Another notable aspect of the Vedic mathematics is the way in which the values of such irrational numbers as √2 and √3 are given to a high degree of approximation, although the method by which these values are arrived at has not been indicated in the *śulba* texts. Yet another relates to permutations and combinations. The Vedic meters with syllables such as 6, 8, 9, 11, 12 and so on were formed by permutations and combinations of syllables by changing the long (*guru*) and short (*laghu*) sounds within each syllable group. The triangular array formed by the bionomial coefficients (referred to as Pascal’s triangle which appeared in Europe not before the sixteenth century A.D.) was known in India in the form of *meruprastāra*, a pyramidal expansion of the number of combinations of 1, 2, etc., syllables formed of short and long sounds. This was dealt with later in a methodical way by Piṅgala (*c.* third century B.C.) in his *Chandaḥ-sūtra*, and was further extended to a binomial theorem (a+b)n by Halāyudha in the eleventh century A.D.a

Medical Knowledge

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As to the medical knowledge of the Vedic Indians, the *saṃhitās* refer to a number of ailments affecting the head, eyes, ear, heart, lungs, stomach, skin, rheumatism, etc. Diseases are said to be caused by congenital factors, change of seasons and minute organisms in the body. There is, however, no attempt to classify the diseases based on some principle. No doubt the magical procedures, charms and imprecations, chanting of *mantras* and other rituals were part of the general treatment of diseases. But a large number of plant remedies were known and some minerals and animal products were also used as healing agents. The Vedic physiology was based upon the concept of *prāṇa* (breath) which was supposed to be the sustainer of life. Nosology was, by and large, descriptive in approach and etiology was noted for its absence. The anatomical and physiological facts, though found considerable in the Vedic texts, appear to be without any rational classification. Nevertheless, the Vedic medical vocabulary speaks of their careful observation of the human body and its ailments, and these paved the way for codification of knowledge later as found in the *Āyurveda* which is regarded as a part (*upāṅga*) of the *Atharvaveda*.

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a Bag, pp. 68–74.

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*Knowledge of Plants and Animals*

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There is ample literary evidence to show that the Vedic Indians possessed considerable knowledge of the morphology and internal structure of plants. And they were able to distinguish and name the different parts of plant—root, shoot, stem, leaves, twigs, flowers and fruits. They knew the difference between the *tvac* or *valkala* (skin) and the inner *sāra* (nutrient fluid). Plants were divided broadly into three groups—*vṛkṣa* (tree), *oṣadhi* (herb) and *vīrudh* (creeper). The *Atharvaveda* subdivides the herbs into seven types based on their morphological and other characteristics (**7**, pp. 376–78).

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Of the animals, there are over 260 names used in the Vedic literature, denoting mammals, birds, some reptiles, fishes and insects. The *Atharvaveda* gives an account of 16 types of *kṛmis* which are poisonous and causative of diseases in cattle and man. The domestic animals included the cow, bull, buffalo, elephant, horse, sheep, goat, dog and cat. As to the wild animals, lion was known to the Vedic Indians.

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*P.G. Ware*

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In respect of the material culture and technological practices of the Vedic period, a special significance attaches to the advent of the Painted Grey ware and iron. The Indo-Aryans, according to some scholars, developed and used a *de luxe* type of pottery now christened by the archaeologists as the Painted Grey ware. It has been surmized that the Indo-Aryan settlers on the Indo-Gangetic plains possessed a knowledge of some similar ceramic used in parts of Iran, Sistan, etc. (*c.* second millennium B.C.), and, utilizing the locally existing ceramic techniques, they evolved the appropriate baking conditions for the production of the Painted Grey ware. This ware, first noticed at Ahicchatra and belonging to a date range of *c.* 1000–400 B.C., has, by and large, an extensive western distribution. A point worthy of note is that a number of iron objects have been discovered in association with the later phase of this ware in several excavated sites (**5**, pp. 285–87).

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*Iron*

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Though there are no details of the iron metallurgical practices in the Vedic literature, it is reasonable to suppose that the small furnaces employed for the extraction of iron might well have been of an open hearth type. The word *ayas* used generally for the metals like copper or bronze began to acquire the connotation of iron as noticed in the later Vedic texts. On the basis of the archaeological evidence it seems to be fairly certain that iron was introduced into India by *c.* 1000–800 B.C. A charcoal sample from an early level of Atranjikhera II (where some iron objects were found) gives a radiocarbon date of 1025±110 B.C. At Hastinapur have been found a couple of slags of iron in the later levels of the Painted Grey ware horizon, indicating local iron-smelting operations as early as *c.* 1100–800 B.C. It may be mentioned that the earliest smelting operations of iron can be dated as far back as the second millennium B.C. in the region of Asia Minor and Caucasus, and there was by the end of the second millennium B.C. an appreciably large use of iron in the Near East whence the Indian iron metal-workers possibly derived their technical knowledge. But the fact of significance is that within the next five to six centuries of the advent of iron in India, the technical proficiency reached was so high that the Indian iron and steel objects earned the admiration of the western world (5, pp. 287–90).

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In the Vedic period agriculture was an important vocation and not a few of the then social and religious customs were associated with the agricultural operations of ploughing, sowing, reaping and threshing. The plough, sickle, sieve and the contrivance for winnowing were among the agricultural implements. Of the important grains grown in this period, viz. wheat, rice and barley, significantly enough the *Ṛgveda* does not mention rice at all indicating that rice was a wild growth and not yet cultivated in the early period of the Indo-Aryan settlement. The *Yajurveda* and the *Atharvaveda* contain references to rice of different varieties as well as to several agricultural operations. The Vedic farmers are credited with the practice of improving the fertility of the soil by the method of rotation fallowing and this system appears to have been followed in the west at a later date, according to Roxburgh, the Father of Indian botany (6, pp. 352–54).

Cites (13)