Ancient Indian Scholars

Ancient Indian Scholars You Must Know

India is a country of great heritage, geography and biodiversity.This country has given many scholars to the world. Here are some you must know.

SAGE SUSHRUTA [Father of all surgeries] (Lived around 800 B.C.E.)

He was an ancient physician. He was the first person in the world history to introduce surgery. He discovered the procedure of rhinoplasty (surgery of nose), 300 operations including caesarean, abdominal surgery, brain surgery. He discovered 121 surgical tools, which are used in modern surgeries too. Cataract removal was first carried out by Sushruta. He used herbs before operation to prevent sepsis. He used to perform dissection of human body to read anatomy without using knife.

He had mentioned all his discoveries, observations and knowledge in his Sanskrit scripture `Sushrut Samhita`. Sushrut Samhita is one out of three pillars of AYURVEDA. It is also a part of “Atharvaveda”. This scripture was written in around 600 B.C.E. 600 B.C.E. was also known as “Golden Age of Surgery.”

BAUDHAYA [Lived in 800 B.C.E.]

He was an ancient mathematician. He was the first to propose most renowned Pythagoras theorem. Pythagoras, Greek philosopher and mathematician, discovered it later and was credited for it. Baudhaya wrote all his knowledge in a Sanskrit scripture named `Baudhayana Sulbasutra`. There is a shlok in Baudhayana Sulbsutra

which describes the Pythagoras theorem:

दीर्घ चतुर्श्रस्या क्षन्यारज्जु: पार्श्व मानी तिर्यक्मानी /

च यतपृथ्वभूते कुरु तस्ते दुमयं करोति //

It means that in a right angled triangle, the square of the longest side is equal to the sum of the squares of two sides.

ACHARYA KANAD [Born in 600 B.C.E.]

Kanad was also known as Ulka, Kashyapa, Kanabaksha, Kanabhuj. He was an ancient Indian natural scientist and philosopher. He established a school named Vasesika , it was a school of Indian philosophy that also represented the earliest Indian Physics.

He was believed to have formulated the theory of atom (even before the birth of Dalton). He wrote his ideas and knowledge in the `Vaisesika sutra` also known as `Kanad sutra `or `Aphorisms of Kanad`.

According to Kanad`s system, there are 6 properties that are nameable and knowable. These 6 properties are –

1. Dravya (substance)

2. Guna (quality)

3. Karmana (motion)

4. Samaya (time)

5. Visesa (particular)

6. Samvaya (inherence)

There are 9 classes of dravya (substance), some are atomic, some are non-atomic and others that are all pervasive.

GOPALA and ACHARYA HEMACHANDRA SURI

Fibonacci sequence – A sequence of numbers in which one number is the sum of previous two numbers.

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55 …

This Fibonacci sequence was first discovered by an Indian mathematician Gopala in 1135 AD. Indian Jain saint, scholar, poet, mathematician, philosopher, yogi, grammarian, law theorist, historian, lexicographer, rhetorician, logician and prosodist, re-explained the Fibonacci numbers in 1150 AD, about 50 years before Fibonacci (1202 AD).

ARYABHATTA [Lived between 476 AD – 550AD]

He is commonly known for the discovery of 0 (zero). But, he also covered a wide range of topics, such as extracting square roots, solving quadric equations, and predicting eclipses. He was the first to propose that the earth is round and it rotates on its axis. He also determined the diameter of the earth and the moon. He calculated the value of ∏ (pi) to the forth decimal digit. He was aware that pi is an irrational number (around 1300 years before Lambert proved it). In his spherical astronomy, he applied plane trigonometry to spherical geometry and gave calculations on solar, lunar eclipses. He discovered the positions of the 9 planets (previously) in the solar system and related them to their rotation around the sun. His most famous work, `Aryabhattiya` is a detailed text on mathematics and astronomy. The book covers arithmetic algebra and trigonometry. His another work `Arya Siddhanta` deals with astronomical calculations and contains description of several astronomical instruments.