Heritage of Science & Technology in Ancient India
SECTION 2:
THE PYTHAGORAS THEOREM &
MATHEMATICS
All of us perhaps recall the Pythagoras theorem from our school days. In its most well-known version, it states that in a right angled triangle, the square on the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides. Sets of
numbers that satisfy this relationship, for example 3, 4, 5 which relate
to each other such that 32+42=52, are called Pythagorean triples.
Dr.Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for S&T and a surgeon by
training, made a fantastic claim at the 102nd Indian Science Congress
held in Mumbai, that the theorem should be actually called as
Baudhayana Theorem, because it had been established in the Sulba
Sutras long before Pythagoras. Indeed, historians of science have long
argued that what goes by the name of Pythagoras theorem was perhaps
was already extant knowledge and not really discovered by him. The
Minister’s claim not only betrayed a lack of knowledge, but also a lack
of appreciation of how to deal with the subtleties of the history of
science.
Reacting to the Minister’s fantastic claim, Professor Dr.Manjul
Bhargava, winner of the prestigious Fields Medal and Professor of
Mathematics at Princeton University, put the issue in perspective. He
stated that the Pythagoras theorem “should either be an Egyptian
13 .................
theorem if you look at the standard of just having an idea about it, an
Indian theorem if you are looking for a complete statement of it, or a
Chinese theorem if you are looking for the proof of it”.
Although there is no statement of theorem anywhere, one finds
evidence of Pythagorean triples as far back as 2,500 BC in Egypt,
when number combinations such as 3, 4, 5 and 5, 12, 13, were noted in
structures there. These ratios satisfy the theorem but could have easily
been arrived at by trial and error or coincidence.
The earliest known systematic listing of Pythagorean triples
satisfying a2 + b2 = c2 is found in the 1,800 BC “Plimpton tablets” used
for teaching scribes in Mesopotamia, or the modern-day Arab world,
pre-dating both the Sulba Sutra and Pythagoras. While there is still no
unambiguous written statement of the theorem in these tablets, triples
with very large numbers given in the tablets suggest a good
understanding of the idea. Mesopotamia and Egypt routinely exchanged
goods, knowledge and texts. Egypt, either independently, or from
Mesopotamia, also knew about Pythagoras theorem. It is also known
that Pythagoras spent a considerable part of his early life in Egypt and
learned a good part of his mathematics from the Egyptians.
The Sulba-sutras tell us how to make different kinds of altars or
vedis for religious purposes. There are four important Sulba-sutras, that
of Baudhayana (c. 800 BCE), Manava (c. 750 BCE), Apastamba (c.
600 BCE) and Katyayana (c. 200 BCE). The Sulba-sutras are a part of
Vedanga Jyotisha, and are therefore a part of Brahminical rituals. Sulbasutras
of Baudhayana explicitly states the Pythagorean theorem, that if
you have a right-angled triangle, the square of the length of the
hypotenuse is the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two
sides. This seems to be the first recorded instance, but does not establish
that is where the idea originated.
If one uses the rigour that mathematicians use, i.e. that one needs
not only a statement, but also proof, then one has to note that whereas
the Sulba-sutras do contain proofs in some special cases and contain
numerical proofs in general, it is the Chinese mathematical text that has
the first recorded rigorous proof of the Pythagorean theorem.
Baudhayana provides a proof for isosceles right-angled triangles (with
Heritage of Science & Technology in Ancient India 14
two sides of equal length), while Apastamba gives a numerical proof
of the more general statement, true for any right-angled triangle.
As stated earlier, the Chinese too knew about the Pythagoras
theorem, known in China as the kou-ku theorem. Zhou Bi Suan Jing's
Chinese manuscript dated sometime between 1046 BC and 256 BC
contains a rigorous mathematical proof. It is conceivable that the
statement of the theorem went from India to China, but the complete,
rigorous proof seems to have been arrived at in China. The Chinese
had also developed another proof of the Pythagoras theorem, in a
visual form.
The claim to fame of Pythagoras is that he was supposedly the
first to provide a formal proof of the theorem. However, neither the
Euro-centric claim of Pythagoras providing the first proof, nor the
Indo-centric view of India being the original home of the Pythagoras
theorem, are completely true.
Each of the culture areas that we have discussed shows their
unique contributions. They all learn from each other and openly
acknowledge what they have learned from other scholars. The attempt
to seek credit for only one specific culture area is the consequence of
trying to create a national or racial claim to a historical “first.” The West
attempted its racist history of science by claiming that only Greek
mathematics is true mathematics as it had a concept of proof. They
reject all evidence of the deep debt that Greek mathematics and science
has to Egypt. It is the same impulse that inverts this racist interpretation
of history to argue that India “discovered” the Pythagoras theorem
and gave it to the Greeks.
These different layers of information suggest that the question
of who discovered the theorem is not a well-defined one and perhaps
not even interesting. The Pythagoras theorem shows how the history
of science and mathematics is not one of who did what first, but to
see the broad sweep of development and what have been the
contributions of each cultural area. The idea perhaps had multiple origins
in various cultures and travelled from culture to culture, each time
embellished and perfected over time. Thus assigning credit it to one
individual or culture is absurd.
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3. AERONAUTICS AND ROCKETRY:
MYTH AND REALITY
In the medieval period, major advances were made in Indian
technology but these advances are somehow ignored by the Hindutva
school of thought which seems to focus exclusively on the ancient
period. The interaction with Central and West Asia brought into India
many new aspects of architecture like the ability to make true arches
and domes, the popular use of paper, stitched clothes, metal inlays,
the Persian wheel for deep well irrigation, and new type of looms for
weaving cotton.
One major advance made in India was in rocketry.
Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan were pioneers in advancing rocketry.
They used such rockets effectively against the British in the Anglo-
Mysore wars.
Prof.Roddam Narasimha, one of the doyens of Indian
aeronautics, in a paper in 1985, (Rockets in Mysore and Britain, 1750-1850
A.D., National Aeronautical Laboratory, 1985) discussed Tipu and
Hyder Ali's contributions to the development of rocketry. Abdul Kalam,
who according to the current Culture Minister, Mahesh Sharma, was a
“nationalist” “despite being a Muslim,” accorded high praise in his
autobiography to Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali for their contributions to
rocketry.
Heritage of Science & Technology in Ancient India 16
Prof.Narasimha discusses the discovery of gunpowder and early
rockets in China in the 11th century, and how they travelled to other
parts of the world including India. These early rockets fell into relative
disuse after the invention of the cannon in the 13th century.
Prof.Narasimha analysed Tipu and Hyder Ali's major
contributions to rocketry. He noted that they used metal casing for the
rockets, instead of the then prevalent bamboo and paper casings. With
such metal casings, rockets could travel up to 2 km, a huge increase in
their range. These rockets also had a much greater carrying capacity.
They also used sword blades tied to the rockets, to stabilise their flight,
much in the way we use a long stick in Diwali “rockets.” Such swords
also served as weapons when they landed among the enemy soldiers.
Tipu had built a huge number of rockets and used massed rocket
attacks in his battles against the British. In Tipu's 1780 battle in Pollilur
(2nd Anglo-Mysore War), such rocket attacks played a decisive role in
the defeat of the British.
After Tipu's defeat in the 4th Anglo Mysore War, the British
carried away a large number of unused rockets to England, where
William Congreve subjected them to scientific study. It was Congreve's
research – reverse engineering as we would call it today -- and further
development that lead to the use of rockets by the British against the
French in the Napoleonic wars, and later against the Americans.
As opposed to the actual contributions in aeronautics and
rocketry, we have the incredible claims of the Hindutva lobby. In the
symposium at the 102nd Indian Science Congress, 2015, a paper on
ancient Indian aviation technology was presented by two speakers, one
of whom was Captain Anand J. Bodas, a retired pilot. He told the
audience and the press such gems as that, in Vedic or ancient Indian
times “at least 7000 years ago,” an aeroplane travelled “through the air
from one country to another, from one continent to another continent,
from one planet to another planet ... and could move left, right, as well
as backwards." To those who questioned his claims based on
contemporary aeronautics, he retorted: "modern science is unscientific."
Bodas's claims are based on Vymanika Shastra, a work written
in Sanskrit by one Subbaraya Shastry. Shastry lived from 1866 to 1940.
He had claimed that the ancient sage Bharadwaja appeared to him
17 .................
while he was in a “psychic trance” and dictated the entire text to him!
The only “evidence” of the antiquity claimed by Shastry was the period
that sage Bharadwaja must have lived in!
The text, Vaimanika Shstra, was extensively studied by a team of
five professors from the aeronautical and mechanical engineering
departments of Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, and
including Sanskrit scholars. Their conclusions are telling. Vaimanika Shastra
was not an ancient text, but was written in modern Sanskrit in the early
20th century, not in Vedic Sanskrit. They also concluded that it was bad
science, and nothing that was built as it described in the above text,
with drawings, could ever have flown.
In contrast, the study by the IISc team Roddam's study shows
us how history of science is to be treated. Not the vainglory of a
mythical past with aeroplanes that can go forwards and backwards
and fly in space between planets, but meticulous research and analysis
of what it really was. The IISc team showed how the text contains no
description or displays no knowledge of any elementary aeronautical
principles. They also showed that building of aircraft and spacefaring
rockets also required knowledge of, and manufacturing techniques
relating to, advanced materials, different components, fuels etc.
Vaimanika Shastra contained no mention of any of these, and no
archaeological excavation or ancient text pointed to any such thing.
Inventions do not suddenly appear out of thin air, but have antecedents,
earlier work done by others, and processes by which earlier advances
fed into to the larger body of aeronautic knowledge, and are part of
what we are doing even today.
Science and technology advances by being open to both the
external world and the knowledge of other disciplines. By treating myth
as history, we do a great disservice to the actual advances we made in
the past. The sterile worship of the past can only kill science and
technology in the country.
Heritage of Science & Technology in Ancient India 18
4. THE CURIOUS CASE OF ARYABHATA:
RESPECTED AND REVILED
Earth is spherical in nature, it rotates about its axis, resulting in
day and night, eclipses are just a play of shadows, with the Moon's
shadow falling on Earth resulting in solar eclipse and Earth’s shadow
falling on the Moon resulting in lunar eclipse. These are some of the
seminal pronouncements of Aryabhata (476–550 CE), arguably India’s
greatest ancient mathematician and astronomer. Aryabhata is also credited
with numerous mathematical discoveries or innovations such as the
place value system (with numbers written in units, tens, hundreds etc),
the zero (as a place marker), value of pi (À) to a high degree of accuracy
and so on. However, in this Section, we shall restrict ourselves to
Aryabhata’s work on astronomy.
Aryabhata is today a revered figure in India, whose first satellite
was named after him. Yet in his time, and for many centuries thereafter,
Aryabhata’s astronomical work and his model of the solar system were
ridiculed and his ideas were deliberatively mis-interpreted. While scientific
dispute and doubt are usual and should be respected and appreciated,
those who mocked him at that time not only disputed his theories
often without evidence, but castigated him for going against Vedic
postulates and Puranic claims.
Spherical Earth
In ancient times, led by their common sense, people across
different cultures believed that the earth was basically flat, with some
19 .................
cultures like the Chinese
believing it was
rectangular and others
that it was round like a
flat disc or coin.
Satapatha Brahman
(6.1.2.29) too said the
Earth is four-cornered. In
classical Tamil Sangam
literature (c.300 BCE -
300 CE), the Earth was
viewed as a land
surrounded by oceans,
again a concept common
across many cultures. Philosophers in ancient Greece too adhered to
some version of a flat earth.
Admittedly, there is a single reference to Earth as “Bhoogola”,
i.e., the “sphere that is earth”, in the Bhagavata. Some use such cherrypicked
words to make tall claims that the Puranas unambiguously assert
the spherical nature of the Earth. However a careful reading of the
Bhagavata shows that nowhere is Earth described as a sphere, on the
contrary, Earth is described as circular and flat.
The idea of a spherical Earth appears in classical Greek
philosophy with Pythagoras postulating the Earth as a sphere c. 600
BCE and Aristotle providing empirical evidence of a spherical Earth
around 330 BCE. Aristotle, of course, viewed the sphere as the perfect
shape, and the divine cosmology demanded that this perfection be
embodied in all heavenly bodies.
It is not known if these ideas were known to or influenced
astronomers in India at that time. However, the ideas of Ptolemy (c.100-
170 ACE) to describe the motion of the sun, moon, planets and other
heavenly bodies, certainly seem to have been known by the time of
Aryabhata who also used Ptolemaic epicycles (a pattern of movement
which served to explain difference between observation and calculations
based on pure circular motions).
Heritage of Science & Technology in Ancient India 20
However, the predominant Puranic view, as also of Buddhist
and Jaina scholars, during that period was that of a flat Earth with a
central land mass surrounded by oceans, and a cosmos comprising air,
the sun and moon, and the various planets and stars. The Puranic view
placed the abode of the Gods, Mount Meru, at the centre with the
Moon on the top and the Sun whirling around Meru “like the
circumference of a potters wheel.” The pole star of Dhruva was viewed
as the pivot or axis of the whole planetary system, with all the planets
and stars connected to it by respective bands or chords of air called
pravaha. Day and night are caused by sunlight or shadow of the tall
Mount Meru as the sun goes around it, and eclipses were caused by the
well-known mythical cosmic serpents Rahu and Ketu.
Motion of Earth
Aryabhama departed sharply from the Puranic cosmology. His
model was still geocentric, in which the Sun, Moon and the planets
each move in epicycles, which in turn revolve around the Earth, similar
to Paitamahasiddhanta (c. CE 425) which used two epicycles, a smaller
manda (slow) and a larger sighra (fast), with Earth at the centre to describe
the motions of the heavenly bodies.
Aryabhata posited the Earth as spherical. The Moon is placed
nearest to Earth, followed by Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, and then the nakshatras or stars.
With this basic model, Aryabhama boldly proposed, among
others:
(1) the diurnal rotation of the Earth around its own axis (rather
than the apparent rotation of the Sun around Earth)
(2) a corresponding theory of gravity to explain why objects are
not thrown out as the Earth spins
(3) the variability of the concept of “up'' and “down'' depending
on where one is located on the globe, and
(4) explanation of lunar and solar eclipses as, respectively, Earth's
shadow on the Moon and the Moon coming between the Earth
and the Sun.
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Importantly, Aryabhata insisted that only observation and
experience constituted a basis for theorization or explanation, for
instance of eclipses, not pre-conceived ideas or supernatural powers.
Siddhantic astronomy, of which Aryabhama was one of the founding
figures, therefore departed from established cosmology with quasireligious
suppositions.
Aryabhama showed that the Earth rotated about its axis once a
day resulting in day and night, and generating the apparent east-to-west
motion of the Sun. Aryabhama remarked that for a person in a moving
boat, the banks and objects such as trees on the bank would appear to
move in the opposite direction, and similarly, when the Earth rotates
from west to east, the Sun and the stars seem to move from east to
west.
Aryabhama further argued that the Moon and planets shine by
reflected sunlight. He noted that the lunar eclipse occurs only on the full
moon, i.e. when the Moon is 180 degrees away from the Sun. The
eclipse, he reasoned, was then caused by the shadow of the Earth
falling on the Moon. Similarly, a solar eclipse occurs only on the new
moon day, when the Moon is in the same direction as the Sun. When
the Moon comes between the Earth and the Sun, it casts its shadow on
the surface of the Earth resulting in a solar eclipse. Aryabhata discusses
at length the size and extent of the Earth's shadow and then provides
the calculations explaining the size of the eclipsed portion. Aryabhama
also provided computational methods for predicting astronomical
phenomena like eclipses. Later Indian astronomers improved on the
calculations, but Aryabhama's methods still remained the basis.
However, Aryabhama was attacked by many later astronomers
such as Brahmagupta (c. 628 CE) and Varahamihira (505-587 CE).
Varahamihira objected to Aryabhata’s conception of the earth’s rotation
on its own axis, raising questions as to why birds and bees were not
flung backwards. Brahmagupta wondered why objects did not fall,
and others questioned why arrows did not draft towards the west etc.
Indeed, almost the same objections were to greet Galileo’s helio-centric
theory!
As years went by Aryabhama was also treated as a “rishi” or
great sage who had obtained his startling insights not through scientific
Heritage of Science & Technology in Ancient India 22
investigations and observations but by divine revelation. Nevertheless,
the effort was to somehow reconcile Aryabhama’s notions conform
with Puranic concepts such as of a flat, stationary Earth. Even his sutras
were modified, from stating “pranenaiti kalam bhur” to “pranenaiti
kalam bham,” the former word implying the Earth’s rotation while the
latter implied the sun and stars revolving around the Earth each day!
Aryabhata’s eclipse theory came in for even sharper criticism. If
the eclipses are mere shadow play, then what is the need for Brahmins
to perform ablutions during an eclipse? If indeed the duration of
eclipses can be predicted before they happened, then what is the point
of appeasing Rahu-Ketu with offerings and worship to release the
imprisoned Sun or Moon during an eclipse?
Varahamihira, the author of the famous astronomical treatise
Pancasiddhantika, was cautious and tried to reconcile the Puranic myths
with the scientific knowledge expounded by Aryabhata. He agreed
with Aryabhata’s explanation of eclipses, but argued the mythical Rahu
or Ketu is also present near the eclipsed Sun or Moon, and it is necessary
to perform traditional rites as expounded in the Puranas and scriptures.
Brahmagupta went one step further in his Brahmasphuta-Siddhanta
and vehemently asserted that as per the Vedas, “the word of God”,
that eclipses are caused by Rahu and Ketu
Thus, under the pressure of orthodoxy, ancient Indian
astronomers and philosophers often felt obliged to agree with myths
in spite of knowing scientific explantions for phenomena.
Rise of Orthodoxy
So, even though India could boast of so many giants of
astronomy and mathematics, Aryabhata was derided and even ridiculed,
including by such accomplished scholars as Varahamihira and
Brahmagupta? Researchers say that the demise of this great astronomical
tradition in India is linked to the rise of orthodoxy during the 7th and
8th centuries.
The Gupta period during which Aryabhata lived, was
characterized by assimilation, tolerance and broadmindedness.
Universities like Nalanda, Nagarjunakonda, and Vikramasila, had been
founded and were patronised. Historians point out that this period
23 .................
was the height of Buddhist and Hindu architecture. It was a period of
openness to global ideas, and characterised by magnificent achievements
in religious-philosophical debates among Jains, Buddhists and Sanatis.
However, all these came to an end when religious orthodoxy took
hold of social life subsequent to the Gupta period. In particular, the
Manu Smriti, which had a strict injunction against heretical thinking,
became influential. Rules of rigid caste hierarchy, untouchability and
women’s subordination, all became stricter and religiously sanctioned.
All knowledge and science became more secret, secluded, hidden and
concealed, and every new thought and invention was opposed. Even
Ayurvedic vaidyas were considered ‘polluted’ and downgraded in the
caste hierarchy. Astronomers or so-called jyotirvids were denounced and
declared ‘polluted’. Manu Smriti condemned and prohibited scholars
from being called to yagnas, mahadanas and shraadhas. Further, the
Brahmins changed the meaning of the word jyotirvidya, which to
Aryabhata and to others of his time, meant simply the study of the
movements of the stars, now came to mean the ‘study’ of the supposed
effects of stars on human beings.
The sufferings of Galileo and Bruno at the hands of faith-based
orthodoxy are well known. Orthodoxy and fundamentalism have always
been an impediment to the growth of science and knowledge. Closer
to home, one of the greatest ancient Indian astronomers, Aryabhama
had to meet a similar fate at the hands of Vedic orthodoxy foregrounding
revelations and faith over reason and evidence.
Contemporary developments that similarly foreground faith over
evidence and reason would once again take us to the dark ages.
Heritage of Science & Technology in Ancient India 24
5. IRON & STEEL: METALLURGY
The use of metals, and the development of knowledge and
skills about their extraction, purification, alloys and working to make
products, has been one of the definitive achievements marking a
qualitative shift in the advancement of human societies.
Only gold and, to a lesser extend, silver and copper are found
naturally more or less in their pure form requiring little effort to extract.
But these metals were too soft to find practical application as tools or
weapons, in comparison to the hard stone implements used widely at
that time, they were mainly for ornamentation especially for temples,
kings and the aristocracy. Gold and silver ornaments have been found
in Mohen-jo-daro (c. 3000 BCE), in Mesopotamia (in the region known
today as Iraq) and Egypt around 2500 BCE. Copper, when heated
then allowed to cool in air (i.e. annealed) could be beaten into different
shapes better and Gold could be melted and poured into moulds (a
process called casting) such as the famous death mask of the Egyptial
Pharaoh Tutankhamun ca. 1300 BCE. Pottery furnaces with reasonably
high temperatures were soon put to use for extracting copper from its
ores, mainly the carbonate ore malachite.
Over time, copper and the more rare tin were combined to
make bronze which has a low melting point, therefore enabling casting
by which a wide variety of products could be made such as vessels,
containers, weapons and tools. Yet due to the scarcity of copper and
tin, as well as the relatively remote places where they were found and
hence the high cost of transportation, bronze was expensive. Its products
25 .................
were therefore used mostly
by the aristocracy, wealthy
merchants and the like,
mostly in the large cities that
were characteristic of the
period that we now known
as the “bronze age.”
Of all the metals
that made major changes in
the way of life, Iron was the
foremost. Although iron
extracted from fragments of meteorites containing iron (available freely
on the surface, but in small quantities) was known to early human
societies, its rarity made its use scarce. Around 1500BCE or so, iron
seems to have become available in relatively large quantities through
smelting (process of producing a metal from its ore by using a reducing
agent such as coal or charcoal to remove other materials leaving the
metal behind), making its appearance in different parts of the world,
and paving the way for a major transformation of human societies
and civilizations. As Iron and steel become available in larger quantities
and in less cost more soldiers could be equipped with superior weapons
and body-protecting armour, forests could be cleared with the axe,
and agriculture could be improved substantially using iron instead of
wooden ploughshares.
The widespread use of iron was one of the major factors for
the end of the Bronze Age and its large river-valley, city-centred
economies, and marked the beginning of the agriculture-based
economies of the next two millennia and more. When and where exactly
iron emerged on a large scale is not yet known with any exactness, so
any culture’s claim of having accomplished this first has little foundation
and has little bearing on the shaping of the history of metallurgy, or
science and technology in general.
Science and Technique, Scholar and Artisan
In science, for example in Astronomy as we have seen in earlier
Sections, scholars themselves recorded their own observations,
calculations, hypotheses and critiques of other scholars’ theories, and
Heritage of Science & Technology in Ancient India 26
these writings often found their way across continents and civilizations,
either in original or in translation or as transmitted through visiting
scholars, where other scholars read them and incorporated the ideas
they liked into their own work. Itinerant scholars travelled to other
civilizations, met with other scholars, some even spending considerable
time there for study and interaction with local scholars.
Very few records show that Indian scholars travelled abroad or
extensively, but there are ample records to show that Chinese, Arab,
Persian, Central Asian and Greco-Roman scholars visited India, were
quite conversant with Sanskrit and also spend time at institutions of
learning. Evidence also shows that Indian scholars were familiar with
the work of Greek, Persian and Arab scholars whose ideas are echoed
in their Indian counterparts’ work. Knowledge of astronomy,
mathematics and philosophy spread throughout the ancient world in
this manner and witnessed much exchange and cross-fertilization of
ideas. Scholars tried out the methods of other those from different
civilizations, compared results and observations, and add such
knowledge to their own, thus contributing to the spread and growth
of the body of knowledge which was later to transform into modern
science.
In the matter of technique (the term technology, although
generally used quite loosely, is probably better applied to the modern
period when generalized principles are of science are applied and
incorporated into technique), however, the context and processes
involved in cultural exchanges were quite different. Practitioners
themselves would most likely have been artisans and skilled workers
who, despite differences between civilizations, would generally not have
been literate or at least may not have been able to write, describe and
record their practices in universally comprehensible terms. Equally
important, artisans who may otherwise have been highly skilled and
knowledgeable in their own crafts, would not have had the concepts
or language with which to communicate to others. Communication of
these generalized concepts would have to wait for the development of
modern science so as to be properly articulated in the manner of
modern manuals, which carry descriptions within a common
framework of universally recognized concepts and principles.
27 .................
Further, artisans themselves perhaps also did not travel much to
other lands, as it was usually merchants who would carry their wares
for sale in other centres within or outside the country. Scholars who
visited artisans in their own settings observed their work, even described
them with as much detail as they could muster, but once again lacked
the intimate knowledge, concepts and universally familiar terminologies
to be able to absorb or communicate these ideas and practices in a
replicable manner.
In short, unlike in astronomy or mathematics, in technology the
practitioner and the scholar were two different people, indeed two
different classes of people: the artisan and the scholar, the patrician and
the plebian, perhaps the educated and the non-educated, and in India
the higher and the lower caste.
Another fact that is not adequately acknowledged, or at least
discussed, is that artisans and other skilled practitioners were quite
secretive about their knowledge, operated in almost closed kinship,
clan or other groupings, and were reluctant to divulge the intricacies of
their crafts.
All these factors relating to technique, were among of the major
reasons why some civilizations retained a virtual monopoly over the
production and trade of certain categories of products and materials,
including metals, for many centuries. Contrary to the claims of some
“nationalist” historians, these unique contributions of particular cultures
or civilizations are not only because of the genius of that culture but
because, wherever such unique contributions were made, and they were
made in various regions of the world as we shall see, it was the difficulties
noted above that stood in the way of inter-cultural exchange of
techniques of making materials and artefacts. The world would need
to wait for the modern scientific and industrial revolution to be able to
bring together science and technique, which could thereafter justifiably
be called technology, which henceforth incorporated scientific principles
and could be further developed based on them.
Among the various areas of metallurgy, among the most
renowned of India’s contributions are the techniques of making iron
and steel. The Rig Veda contains several references to metals as a category
(ayas), but does not seem to refer specifically to iron. It also refers to
Heritage of Science & Technology in Ancient India 28
the dasyus or non Aryan-speaking peoples as having ayas, which is also
of course confirmed by pre-Aryan archeological finds.
Iron-making in ancient India
What is known with a
fair degree of certainty, and
verified through supporting
evidence from different
disciplines, is that Indian iron
and steel making, especially in
South India, was among the
earliest in the world, and seems
to have been firmly established
by the second millennium
BCE. Other early finds are
from West-Central India and
the Deccan. In other parts of
the world, iron making was
dominant in the Hittite
kingdom around 1500 BCE, in what is now Turkey and embracing
parts of Syria and Iraq, and spread into Greece and the Mediterranean
region by 1000 BCE or a bit later. Whereas there is evidence of very
early smelting of iron from Central Asia and the Caucuses region,
notably the prolific tribes-people of Chalybes in Anatolia (modern
Georgia), who were perhaps the first to make tempered steel, the balance
of evidence suggests that Indian iron-making may have been earlier.
More important than who came first, however, is the renowned
quality of the iron, steel and their products made in ancient and medieval
India, the techniques developed and used to make them, and the vast
quantities of these traded to all parts of the world till well into the
colonial era.
During that period, Iron was extracted from its ores in the solid
form because temperatures required to melt the metal could not be
reached. Simple clay furnaces with hand-operated bellows as blowers
were used, reducing the ore by adding charcoal. This resulted in
production of “blooms,” so-called by the flower-like eruptions of
iron and slag, from which pure iron (termed wrought iron) was beaten
29 .................
out. This low-carbon (0.1-
0.2% C) wrought iron could
be worked well by heating it
and beating the metal when still
hot into the desired shape. This
method of iron smelting
would have taken considerable
trial and error to figure out,
but then it was quite simple to
replicate. No wonder this
technique was in vogue almost
throughout the world.
This technique is still practiced by several tribal groups in different
parts of the country, notably in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand by the
Asura and Agaria tribes.
One exception of even more advanced technique stood out,
namely the early invention of the blast furnace in China to make cast
iron as early as the 5th century BCE. Cast iron, meaning the pouring of
molten or liquid iron into moulds to make products, was unknown
elsewhere else in the world for several centuries because sufficient blast
of air could not be provided. But the Chinese, with their experience of
high-temperature furnaces for ceramics clearly had managed to devise
equipment that could achieve this. Indeed, it took till the 14th century
for cast iron to be appreciated in Britain and another couple of centuries
for it to be made there and in other parts of Europe, albeit with different
techniques and at industrial scales with major impact on India and China.
Cast iron has a fairly high carbon content of 2-4% and, while
hard, is quite brittle and difficult to work. Its main advantage was that
it has a relatively low melting point of around 1100°C. Probably for
these reasons, even though it was so widely made and used in China, it
remained for many centuries a product used mostly by farmers and
common folk including soldiers, for agriculture, cooking vessels and
of course weaponry. By the early years of the first millennium CE, it
was used extensively in China to make tools, weapons, vessels and
utensils.
Heritage of Science & Technology in Ancient India 30
Both the Chinese cast iron and the Indian solid reduction smelting
process were distinct in that they required more reducing conditions
than usual and gave the iron thus made special qualities,
Unique and prized Indian iron
Indian iron had many
characteristics that made it quite
unique and highly valued the world
over. Everyone of course talks
about the famous Iron Pillar of
the Gupta period ca. 300 ACE
during the reign of Chandragupta
II “Vikramaditya” whose reign is
commemorated in Pali on the
pillar, standing over 7m tall and
weighing about 6 tons. The pillar
is installed in the Qutab Minar
complex in Delhi and, despite
standing fully exposed to the
weather all these centuries, has not
rusted at all. So let us too use this
iconic artifact to understand the characteristics of ancient Indian iron
and what made it stand out.
`The most significant feature of the pillar is the quantity of
phosphorous (P) in its material, considerably higher than found in
modern iron which would not contain such high proportion of P
since it could lead to brittleness and cracking during hot working. It
was earlier believed that this was due to inclusion of slag, the glassy
waste material left over after the process of extracting the metal from
the ore. Lime was not added those days (unlike in modern blast furnaces)
which would have reduced the P deposits in ancient iron made by the
solid reduction process described above, hence the higher amount of
P. However, by comparison with the iron used in other artifacts of the
same period, it is now understood that the additional Phosphorous in
the iron pillar was deliberately added, probably by choosing particular
types of wood, in order to get the desired effect. Many other large
31 .................
iron objects of that period, including building elements, show that
weather- or corrosion-resistance was deliberately sought and achieved
by Iron smiths of that time.
These and other special characteristics clearly demonstrate the
deep knowledge and mastery of technique that made Indian iron and
steel so special and valued till well into the colonial period in the 18th
century ACE.
The benefits of carburizing iron, or adding additional carbon,
were also well known in India. By the end of the first millennium
ACE, iron had been classified into three different categories depending
on carbon content, not measured of course, but based on physical
properties. The Rasaratna samucchaya c. 900-1200 ACE classes iron
into wrought iron (Kanta Loha), carbon steel (Tikshna Loha), and cast
iron (Munda Loha), and further sub-divides these into sub-categories
defined by the kinds of products they are suitable for.
Indian cast iron was exported in large quantities to South East
Asia, Persia, the Arab countries and to Britain and continental Europe
till well into the 18th Century.
Indian smiths preferred to use the forge-welding method of
making large objects such as cannon or the iron pillar since this enabled
them to use good steel, rather than the method of casting that was
gaining ground in Europe by the 17th century. Relatively large discs or
ingots were heated and joined to each other by hammering to form
larger pieces and so on till the complete object was made. The Iron
Pillar at the Qutab Minar still bears distinct marks that reveal the different
places where such forge-welding was done. Limitations of scale as
well as the huge quantities of charcoal required as compared to castings
were among the factors that led to the decline of such techniques in
India.
World-famous Wootz Steel
Even more famous than the iron-making was the renowned
Indian high-carbon steel made by what the Europeans would later call
crucible technique. This steel became known in Arabic as fulad and to
Europeans as wootz steel, probably a corrupted form of the Tamil
urukku (melted or molten) or the Kannada ukku with the same meaning.
Heritage of Science & Technology in Ancient India 32
Wrought iron was mixed in a crucible along with charcoal and
glass, and heated till they combined and a relatively high-carbon steel
was produced. The steel was then worked and given appropriate heat
treatment such as heating and then cooling in air (annealing), or rapidly
cooling it by immediately dipping it in different liquids to give it specific
properties (quenching) or heating it again after quenching to particular
temperatures so as to reduce its brittleness and give it more toughness
(tempering), and so on.
Indian artisans knew and practiced numerous such heat treatment
techniques and produced a wide variety of specialized iron, steels and
products. Indian steel was made in vast quantities and exported by
traders and merchants throughout Asia, the Middle-East and later
Europe.
Wootz steel seemed to have been made in India perhaps in the
second half of the first millennium BCE although it seemed to have
come to the attention of the Arabs, Greeks, Romans and others a few
centuries later. The famous Turkish-Greek historian Herodotus noted
that Indian soldiers used iron or steel arrowheads in the battle of
Thermopylae c.500 BCE. So famous was the Indian wootz, that when
Alexander the Great came to India in the course of his conquests, he
was gifted not gold or silver but 30 pounds of wootz steel!
The renowned philosopher-astronomer-mathematician
Varahamihira in his Khadagalakshanam (sword-making) c. 500 CE,
gives detailed descriptions of the forging of sharp-edged swords. He
also notes various methods of quenching, such as in sheep’s blood,
mare’s milk, oil and ghee. Various manufacturing and heat treatment
methods relating to different kinds of products are recorded by scholars
in Sanskrit or Pali texts in different periods over the centuries well into
the medieval period indicating the depth of knowledge and
sophistication of the blacksmiths of those times. The renowned scholar
of Ayurveda and pioneer of surgical techniques, Susruta (ca.500-600
BCE) used a variety of steel implements and tools that are described in
the Susruta Samhita, which is now believed to be a compilation spanning
several centuries well into the first millennium CE. The Arthashastra,
again a multi-author compilation over the period 300BCE-200CE,
similarly details a variety of steel weapons and armour including chainmail
armour.
33 .................
It appears that these skills and techniques resulted in products of
unparalleled excellence for well over 1500 years. The Arab traveler and
writer Idrisi wrote sometime in the 12th Century ACE that Indians
excel in the manufacture of iron and what was known as Indian steel:
“It is not possible to find anything that surpasses the edge of Indian
steel (al hadid al-Hindi).” The technique of sword-making and imparting
it strength without brittleness and an extremely sharp edge which did
not lose its sharpness easily made Indian swords famous across
continents.
The Europeans came to know these as Damascene swords or
swords from Damascus because that is where they encountered them.
One commentator during the Crusades marvels at how “one blow of
a Damascus sword would cleave a European helmet without turning
the edge or cut through a silk handkerchief drawn across it.” Another
traveler described the characteristic wavy pattern of these delicately
forged and tempered blades as “having a water pattern whose wavy
streaks are glistening like a pond on whose surface the wind is gliding.”
Studies have shown that Wootz steel was high-carbon steel with
1-2% carbon which exhibits super-plastic properties, that is, where the
object can change its external shape substantially without having to
undergo internal physico-chemical changes.
Such tempered steel, whether made in India, China or Japan,
even though made in fairly large quantities, was at the same time quite
rare and was used mainly for swords and other weaponry, besides
some artisanal tools. In earlier times, high quality steel swords were so
uncommon that magical powers were often ascribed to them.
Indian iron, steel and swords were exported in large quantities
even upto the late 18th century. There seems to have been large volumes
of exports from major ports, so much so that these traders constituted
a separate category by themselves. Although exports from the northern
regions declined after the 11th and 12th centuries due to the frequent
wars, change of rulers and consequent instability in that region at the
time. It is recorded that the Dutch made huge profits from the import
of Indian swords even till the 17th century. Indian iron too was rated
very highly in Europe and large quantities were imported into Britain
to make bridges and other construction even in the early 19th century.
Heritage of Science & Technology in Ancient India 34
Secret skills
Clearly, all these materials, techniques and products would have
required special skills and sophisticated techniques. In ancient and
medieval India, metal working artisans specialized in particular metals
or operations, and were formed into guilds or associations which also
came to be characterized by hereditary caste and kinship relationships.
Traders too were organized into guilds according to the wares they
dealt with, praastarika being metal traders.
Since the main buyers of metal goods were the rulers and
their armies, rich folk, traders and other artisans, it appears that artisans
were concentrated in towns and cities rather than in the more remote
areas where ores were found and where, presumably, those artisans
who extracted the metals from their ores still operated. It has been
noted that during the period known as the “second urbanization” (6th
35 .................
to 3rd century BCE), towns and cities including ports of course were
full of metal-working and other artisans.
Eighteen different guilds (sreni, puga) of artisans have been
noted, with guilds being led by a headman (pramukha) or elder
(jyeshthaka) or leader (sreshtin). Panini’s Ashtadhyayi mentions different
types of artisanal groups functioning around the 4th century BCE,
those who catered to ordinary people, again divided into two types,
those who stayed at home and those who roamed about in search of
work, and those who worked for royalty or the court (rajashilpi).
Numerous other documentary sources refer to two types of iron smiths,
those who made wrought iron and those who made steel and weapons.
This is not unique to India. In fact, almost all societies where
metal working became an extensive and organized activity showed
that artisan tribes, clans or other communities formed closed guilds or
associations which closely guarded their techniques, skills and knowledge.
As discussed in an earlier section, despite all the intercivilizational
exchanges and trade, therefore, knowledge and skills were
not freely transmitted. Artisans zealously protected their knowledge
and passed them on only within the family or other in-group. This is
among the major reasons why this vast and sophisticated knowledge
and highly-honed skills of iron and steel-making died out a few centuries
after large-scale iron smelting and casting became known in Europe.
The ancient Indian techniques of iron and steel making were no
longer viable and could not compete with the European industrial forms
of production, even though the quality of iron and steel made in India
Heritage of Science & Technology in Ancient India 36
remained superior for at least a couple of centuries till the industrial
revolution and capitalism took solid root in Europe and squeezed out
the renowned traditional Indian iron and steel-making techniques and
knowledge.
6. INDIAN RHINOPLASTY:
COSMETIC SURGERY
Cowasjee, a bullock-cart driver, in the employment of English
troops, along with four other native sepoys was captured by Tipu
Sultan during the Carnatic Wars. Taken prisoner, Cowasjee and other
four sepoys’ noses were mutilated and their hand cut-off, as was the
custom in those days. In fact not only the humiliated prisoners of wars,
but for many alleged offences, such as adultery, witchcraft etc the shastras
prescribed mutilation of nose as a punishment.
After a year without a nose, he and four of his colleagues
submitted themselves to treatment by a lower caste bricklayer, who
had a reputation for nose repairs. The operations were witnessed by
Thomas Cruso and James Findlay, surgeons at the British Residency in
Poona. They perhaps prepared a description of what they saw and
diagrams of the procedure.
Cowasjee's and other four sepoys’ noses were reconstructed
with a flap of skin rotated down from the forehead, a template of
thin wax having been used to determine the size of the flap.
The amazed Englishmen wrote about the ingenious rhinoplasty,
plastic surgery performed on the nose by an ordinary bricklayer, in the
Madras Gazette of 5th August 1794, describing in detail the procedure
used in the restoration. Gentleman's Magazine in London picked up
this news item and printed it on October 1794.
Until that time, nasal reconstruction in Europe was performed
by a procedure attributed to an Italian professor of medicine from
Bologna, Gaspar Tagliaccozzi druing 1597. Tagliaccozzi first made
two parallel incisions in the upper arm to partially cut away the skin.
Then linen gauze is inserted under the skin flap and the rhinoplasty
patient was kept on bed rest for 14 days. Once the skin flap adjusted to
its reduced blood supply, the next stage of surgery was performed. In
37 .................
this second phase of rhinoplasty, the part of the skin flap closer to the
face was cut free leaving the base attached near the elbow. The free
edge was attached to the patient’s face, and the patient’s arm and shoulder
then had to be immobilized in a leather vest with multiple straps.
The rhinoplasty patient had to remain with his or her arms tied
to his face for three weeks. By that time the skin flap from the arm is
grafted on to the face, skin at the arm was cut free and the new nose
trimmed and shaped. Although the procedure resulted in a new
reconstructed nose, as the arm was tied to the face and kept immobilised,
results in a frozen shoulder.
In contrast the in Cowasjee's case, as described in the magazine,
initially a wax nose pattern was made. The pattern was reversed, flattened
and traced on patient’s forehead. The cuts were made along the traced
line and the forehead skin flap was rotated 180 degrees and attached to
the nose leaving a narrow bridge of skin intact between Cowasjee’s
eyebrows. After about 25 days, the skin bridge was divided and the
patient was kept on bed rest for four to five days. The donor site on
the forehead was allowed to heal on its own, leaving a mirror image
of a nose on the forehead.
Sushruta Samhita
This collection by Sushruta vividly described numerous operations
in various fields of surgery with significant contributions to Plastic
Surgery. In addition to Rhinoplasty, Sushruta Samhita discuss various
surgical procedures to correct pedicle flap, repair of ear lobe defects
,repair of traumatic and congenital clefts of the lip as well as classification
of burns ,description of sharp (20 types) and blunt (101
types)instruments, practice of mock operations, cadveric dissection ,use
of wine to dull the pain of surgical incisions, code of ethics and so on.
The nose in Indian society has remained a symbol of dignity and respect
throughout antiquity. In ancient times, amputation of nose was frequently
done as a punishment for criminals, war prisoners or people indulged
in adultery.
Rhinoplasty described in Sushruta Samhita is as follows: “The
portion of the nose to be covered should be first measured with a leaf.
Then a piece of skin of the required size should be dissected from the
living skin of the cheek, and turned back to cover the nose, keeping a
Heritage of Science & Technology in Ancient India 38
small pedicle attached to the cheek. The part of the nose to which the
skin is to be attached should be made raw by cutting the nasal stump
with a knife. The physician then should place the skin on the nose and
stitch the two parts swiftly, keeping the skin properly elevated by inserting
two tubes of eranda (the castor-oil plant) in the position of the nostrils,
so that the new nose gets proper shape. The skin thus properly adjusted,
it should then be sprinkled with a powder of liquorice, red sandalwood
and barberry plant. Finally, it should be covered with cotton,
and clean sesame oil should be constantly applied. When the skin has
united and granulated, if the nose is too short or too long, the middle
of the flap should be divided and an endeavor made to enlarge or
shorten it.”
The Sanskrit text of 'Sushruta Samhita' was later translated in
Arabic by Ibn Abi Usaybia (1203-1269 AD). As the historical pages
started opening up, the knowledge of Rhinoplasty spread from India
to Arabia and Persia and from there to Egypt. The classical cheek flap
Rhinoplasty of Sushruta was later modified by using a rotation flap
from the adjacent forehead. The Indian Method of Rhinoplasty was
practised by bricklayers near Poona, Kanghairas of Kangra and so on
and each group of people kept the technique as secret for centuries.
The report of this amazing nasal reconstruction operation
performed in India, then a British colony published in a non-medical
GK magazine attracted the attention of a British medical surgeon, Dr
JC Carpue. The report described the procedure as follows: “The
surgeons belonging to the country cut the skin of the forehead above
the eyebrows, and made it fall down over the wounds on the nose.
Then, giving a twist so that a live flesh might meet the other live surface,
by healing applications, they fashioned for them other imperfect noses.
There is left above, between the eyebrows, a small hole, caused by the
twist given to the skin to bring the two live surfaces together. In a short
time the wounds heal up, some obstacle being placed beneath to allow
of respiration. I saw many persons with such noses, and they were not
so disfigured as they would have been without any nose at all.”
Recognising the immense potential the Indian method, as it was
subsequently called, had for rhinoplasty procedures, reducing the down
time and also avoidance of the frozen shoulders, Carpue waited for an
opportune moment to test it on a patient. Dr Carpue successfully
39 .................
performed the first Rhinoplasty operation using the Indian method on
October 23, 1814. Encouraged by the reports of Dr Carpue Indian
technique gained popularity amongst British and European surgeons.
By 1897, at least 152 rhinoplasties had been performed in Europe.
Interestingly, whereas most Europeans seeking rhinoplasty had
lost their noses in duels or battles, the Indian operation had been
developed more than 2000 years earlier when the punishment for
adultery was cutting off the offender’s nose.
The resurgence of Indian method began in the 1700s when British
surgeons working for the East India Company saw the work done by
Indian surgeons. What became known as the Indian rhinoplasty very
quickly became the operation of choice for nasal reconstruction in
Europe and America, in spite of the usual chauvinistic attitudes of
European doctors. Later, with the dissemination and refinement of
the technique it became an established procedure worldwide. Building
upon the early rhinoplasty procedures described by Sushrutha, modern
plastic surgeons today use modern aesthetic techniques and modernized
version of the Indian surgical operation for nasal reconstruction.
Heritage of Science & Technology in Ancient India 40
