Hinduism and Science : some strange relationships

INTRODUCTION

Hinduism, one of the oldest or probably the oldest religion in this world. The only religion without any founder,  but this is not only the mystery of Hinduism. The sacred scripts of ancient India which have become the base of Hinduism says more. To the reference to modern science we can relate some verse of the ancient scripts to the modern laws and concept of science . 

Keywords: science in Hinduism, physics, Santana dharm and science, ancient India, Vedas , rig vedas

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I do not like to call anything discovered now as 'scientific fact' as any fact which is established now can be disproved in the future. (For eg. quantities like mass, time etc.. were considered absolute in the past and now they are considered relative). So, I like to use the term 'scientific concepts' for the present discoveries. There are many theories , concept  of science which are relative to the verse of the ancient scripts. Some are mentioned below

• The accurate measurements of the distance between sun and earth  :

According to hanuman chalisa : (15th Century)

! जुग सहस्त्र योजन पर भानु, लील्यो ताहि मधुर फल जानू !

Yug sahastra jojan par Bhanu |
Leelyo tahi madhur phal janu ||

1Juug= 12000
1 Sahastra= 1000
1Yojan=8 Miles

Thus 12000X1000X8 = 96,000,000 miles

I miles= 1.6 kms

This further implies that distance is about 153,600,000 Km.

** Yug is generally used as an unit of time, but here its usage is similar to “Light Years” a measure of distance.

Hanuman Chalisa has been validated by Goswami Tulsidas who is believed to be of 15th Century. This means distance of Sun from Earth has been calculated with such accuracy at that time....!!!

Question here is not how Tulsidas calculated this distance or how he came to know about this distance.

• The 108 rule :

The number 108 has been given very special importance in Hindu culture right from the earliest spiritual texts. Throughout Hindu culture one encounters the number 108. For example – japa (repetition of a mantra) is often prescribed to be 108 times. Each deity is decorated with 108 names. Malas have 108 beads. Yantras are also imbued with this number. There are 108 main chakras in the body. There are 108 principle Upanishads. 108 appears as a recurring theme in the Vedas – the worlds most ancient treatise for seekers of spiritual truth.

Main Reason: In  astrology, there are the 9 planets and 12 houses. The multiplication of 12 times 9 is 108. Doing 108 rounds is equal to the one complete round of the astrological influence of 9 planets cirumbulating 12 houses.
There are 54 intersections in it, where three lines intersect. Each intersection has masculine (Shiva) and feminine (Shakti) qualities. 54 times 2 equals 108. Thus, there are 108 points that define the Sri Yantra as well as the human body.
The individual numbers 1, 0, and 8 represent one thing, nothing, and everything (completeness/nobleness or infinite like the electrons in atoms )

Accordings to the ancient pattern of 108.
The Sun is 108 Suns from the Earth. That is, 108 Sun diameters. Which is found to be very accurate by modern science calculations.
The Moon is 108 Moons from the Earth. That is 108 Moon diameters. Which not only is also accurate by modern science calculations, but strange coincidence indeed, that the distance to Earth to Sun and Earth to Moon are both an exact multiple of 108.
The diameter of the Sun is 108 Earths.

• The approximation of the speed of light :

Sayana, a fourteenth century Indian scholar. In his commentary on a hymn in the Rig Veda, the oldest and perhaps most mystical text ever composed in India, Sayana has this to say:

"With deep respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha."

A yojana is about nine American miles;
a nimesha is 16/75 of a second.
Mathematically challenged readers, get out your calculators :D

2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75 - 8 nimeshas = 185,794 m.p.s.

Basically, Sayana is saying that sunlight travels at 186,000 miles per second! How could a Vedic scholar who died in 1387 A.D. have known the correct figure for the speed of light? If this was just a wild guess it's the most amazing coincidence in the history of science!

Who invented Nuclear Physics?

Buddhist teacher Pakudha Katyayana taught atomic theory. Maharshi Kanaada of 3rd century, B.C. wrote atomic theory in Vaiseshika Sutras. Agni Purana gives smaller magnitudes. The smallest of them is called Paramaanu which nearly equals one billionth part of a meter. This value tallies with the size of an organic molecule calculated by the western scientists. According to the Upanishads, the five elements of the nature are Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Akasa. (The ancient Greek or Roman philosophers did not know Akasa). One can easily guess that the Earth represents the solid state, the Water the liquid state and the Air the gaseous state. The Fire is the plasma, the fourth state of matter. Western science has not recognized nuclear state as a state of matter, even though some nuclear particles are stable; Akasa means nuclear state. In the ancient Sanskrit text named Anu Sidhdhantam, Maharshi Goutama described three models of

micro-scopes through which atoms and electrons can be seen.

The Theory Of Atom :

One of the remarkable scientists of ancient India was Kanad, who is said to have developed the atomic theory centuries before John Dalton was born. He speculated the existence of Anu or a small indestructible particles, similar to an atom. He also explained that Anu can have two states – absolute peace and a state of movement. He continues to be held, the atoms of the same substance combined with each other and in a specific manner synchronized dvyanuka (diatomic molecule) to generate and tryanuka (triatomic molecules).

The Heliocentric Theory:

Often to make mathematicians of ancient India used their mathematical knowledge accurate astronomical predictions. The most important among them was Aryabhatta whose book, Aryabhatiya, represented the head of the astronomical knowledge at the time. He propounded true that the earth is round, rotates about its own axis and revolves around the sun that is the heliocentric theory. He also made predictions about the solar and lunar eclipses, the duration of the day and the distance between the Earth and the moon.

Architecture science :

India’s urban civilization is traceable to Mohenjodaro and Harappa, now in Pakistan, where planned urban communities existed 5,000 years ago. From then on, the ancient Indian architecture and civil engineering continued to develop and grow. It found manifestation in the construction of temples, palaces and forts on the Indian peninsula and the neighboring regions. In ancient India, architecture and construction as Sthapatya Kala known literal translation of which the art of constructing (some) means.

achieved during the period of Kushan Empire and Maurya empires, the Indian architecture and construction in regions such as Baluchistan and Afghanistan. Statues of Buddha were cut and covers entire mountain walls and cliffs, like Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan. mixed over a period of time, the construction of ancient Indian art and Greek styles and spread to Central Asia.

On the other hand took the Buddhism Indian style of architecture and construction in countries such as Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, China, Korea and Japan. Angkor Wat is a living testimony to the contribution of Indian civil engineering and architecture of the Cambodian Khmer heritage in the field of architecture and construction.

In mainland India of today there are several wonders of the ancient India’s architectural heritage, including World Heritage sites like Ajanta, Ellora, Khajuraho, Mahabodhi Temple, Sanchi, Brihadisvara Temple and Mahabalipuram.

Shipbuilding & Navigation: 

A panel in Mohenjodaro found shows a sailing vessel, and thousands of years later Ajanta murals also show a seafaring ship. The science of shipbuilding and navigation was known to ancient Indians. Sanskrit and Pali texts are replete with maritime references and old Indians, especially from the coastal regions were commercial relations with several countries over the Bay of Bengal as Cambodia, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and even to China. Similar maritime and trade relations existed with the countries on the Arabian Sea as Arabia, Egypt and Persia.

 JL Reid, member of the Institute of Naval Architects and Shipbuilders, England, at about the beginning of the 20th century in the Bombay Gazetteer was published that “”The early Hindu astrologers are said to have used the magnet to the north and east fixing , foundations in the laying and other religious ceremonies. Hindu the compass was an iron fish swimming in a tank of oil, pointing to the north. the fact that this older Hindu compass seems placed beyond doubt by the Sanskrit word, Matcha Yantra ‘oder,Fisch machine’ that gives Molesworth as the name of the sailor’s compass. 

Rig Veda mentions ships with 100 oars. Such shipss sailed over seven oceans and returned to India.Visitor of India from Greece and Rome during the pre-Christiantimes wrote that the Brahmins of India knew that the earth is in the form of a globe and one can reach the same place after sailing through the seven oceans. The Buddhist Jataka stories wrote about large Indian ships carrying seven hundred people.

Padmanabhaswami temple or the Weerahhadra temple where a 2000-year-old image of a bicyclist can be seen carved on one of the walls

In the Artha Sastra, Koutilya wrote about the Board of Shipping and the Commissioner of Port who supervised sea traffic. The Harivamsa informs that the first geographical survey of the world was performed during the period of Vaivasvata. The towns, villages and demarcation of agricultural land of that period were depicted on maps. Brahmanda Purana provides the best and the most detailed description of world map drawn on a flat surface using an accurate scale. Padma Purana says that world maps were prepared and maintained in  form of a book and kept with care and safety in chests.

Surya Siddhantha speaks about construction of wooden globe representing earth and marking of horizontal circles, equatorial circles and further divisions. The second item exported by the erst while British East India Company was Indian ship. A few of these ships are still in service, and are used for training cadets of the British Navy. During World War II, Maharajas of India have lent some hundreds of their ships to the British for use as hospital ships.

American archaeology has always attracted lots of amateurs ... They were digging up Indian pottery all over the place.

— Anthony F.C. Wallace

Fire-Arms:

It would be interesting to examine the true nature of the agneya-astras. Kautalya describes agni-bana, and mentions three recipes - agni-dharana, ksepyo-agni-yoga, and visvasaghati. Visvasaghati was composed of 'the powder of all the metals as red as fire or the mixture of the powder of kumbhi, lead, zinc, mixed with the charcoal and with oil wax and turpentine.' From the nature of the ingredients of the different compositions it would appear that they were highly inflammable and could not be easily extinguished.

A recent writer remarks: 'The Visvasaghati-agni-yoga was virtually a bomb which burst and the fragments of metals were scattered in all directions. The agni-bana was the fore-runner of a gun-shot.

Sir A. M. Eliot tells us that the Arabs learnt the manufacture of gunpowder from India, and that before their Indian connection they had used arrows of naptha. It is also argued that though Persia possessed saltpetre in abundance, the original home of gunpowder was India. It is said that the Turkish word top and the Persian tupang or tufang are derived from the Sanskrit word dhupa. The dhupa of the Agni Purana means a rocket, perhaps a corruption of the Kautaliyan term natadipika. 

Shampoo: 

The word shampoo in English is derived from Hindustani chāmpo and dates to 1762. A variety of herbs and their extracts were used as shampoos since ancient times in India. A very effective early shampoo was made by boiling Sapindus with dried Indian gooseberry (aamla) and a few other herbs, using the strained extract. Sapindus, also known as soapberries or soapnuts, is called Ksuna  in ancient Indian texts and its fruit pulp contain saponins, a natural surfactant. The extract of Ksuna, creates a lather which Indian texts identify as phenaka leaves the hair soft, shiny and manageable. Other products used for hair cleansing were shikakai (Acacia concinna), soapnuts (Sapindus), hibiscus flowers,ritha (Sapindus mukorossi) and arappu (Albizzia amara). Guru Nanak, the founding prophet and the first Guru of Sikhism, made references to soapberry tree and soap in 16th century.Washing of hair and body massage (champu) during a daily strip wash was an indulgence of early colonial traders in India. When they returned to Europe, they introduced their newly learnt habits, including the hair treatment they called shampoo.

Aircraft and aerial transportation

India had many ancient Sanskrit texts on aeronautics. The Yantra Sarvaswa of Maharshi Bharadwaja, Vimaana Chandrika of Maharshi Narayan, Vyoma Yaana Tantra of Sounaka, and Vyoma Yaanarka of Dandi Natha are some of

them. They contained topics like Maargadhi Karana (Navigation and control of speed during flight),Lohaadh Karana (alloys used for various components of the aircraft) and Saktyaadhi Karana (production and usage of various fuels used in aircrafts). Para Sabda Grahakata is a subject of monitoring the flight tracks of aircrafts, navigatory communication system, and monitoring the conversation of the pilots in the aircrafts.

Vimanas

 Maharshi Gouthama mentioned 32 models of aircrafts used in Treta Yuga; only one model among them, called Pushpaka Vimaanam, became popular in the

• Ramayana. The Vaimaanika Sastra describes Tripura  Vimaanathat uses solar powered engine to travel at three levels – on the land, under the surface of water, and in the air. Sakuna Vimaanam is a cross between an aircraft and a rocket – a space shuttle. The British have robbed most of our Sanskrit manuscripts during their rule in India. 

Arithmetic must be discovered in just the same sense in which Columbus discovered the West Indies, and we no more create numbers than he created the Indians.

— Bertrand Russell

In 1895 , Sivasankar Thalpad of Bombay had constructed an aircraft with an engine which flew to an altitude of 1500 feet. He was a Vedic scholar and used to teach at the J.J. School of Arts. He obtained the technology from some rare Sanskrit manuscripts He also wrote a book in Marathi named Praacheena Vimaana Vidye Chaasodha. Lalaji Rayanji, Maharaja of Baroda, was one of the many witnesses who had seen the flying of that aircraft. After the untimely death of Prof.Thalpad, his legal heirs sold all his scripts and materials to the British. (You can check the year of flying of Wright Brothers).

Gravitation theory

Indian mathematician astronomer Aryabhata first identified the force which explains why the Earth's rotation does not cause objects to spin away from it, and developed a geocentric solar system of gravitation. This features an eccentric elliptical model of the planets, where the planets spin on their axes and follow elliptical orbits, the Sun and the Moon revolving around the Earth in epicycles. Indian astronomer and mathematician Brahmagupta (c. 598–c. 668) described gravity as an attractive force and used the term "gurutvākarṣaṇam (गुरुत्वाकर्षणम्)" to describe it.

Al-Hamdānī and Al-Biruni quote Brahmagupta as saying:

"Disregarding this, we say that the earth on all its sides is the same; all people on the earth stand upright, and all heavy things fall down to the earth by a law of nature, for it is the nature of the earth to attract and to keep things, as it is the nature of water to flow, that of fire to burn, and that of the wind to set in motion. If a thing wants to go deeper down than the earth, let it try. The earth is the only low thing, and seeds always return to it, in whatever direction you may throw them away, and never rise upwards from the earth"

They knew scientific cause of an eclipse

When the entire world was worried thinking an eclipse as a black magic or a dragon eating the sun, ancient Indians already knew the scientific phenomenon of the eclipse as per the Rig Vedas.

Rig Veda 5.40.5 has a phrase which translates to

“O Sun! When you are blocked by the one whom you gifted your own light (moon), then earth will be surprised by the sudden darkness.”

There are phenomenal more examples of ancient Indian technologies that can be stated. Ancient India was really something that we all should pay attention for betterment of our present society. Not only in the field of science but the contribution of ancient society on the field of various art ,the science of ruling and so much.

How can a country be that advanced at that age ?

How it can have such an advancement in scientific theories and philosophy which our "advanced" society is unaware till now ?

Some people even believe about the theory of evolution linked to the dashavatar of Lord Vishnu

Don't you wonder how they came to know about all those things?
One of the possible way can be the akashik records