The revolutionary contents of the Vedas
For a quick glimpse at what unsung surprises may lie in the Vedas, let
us consider these renditions from the Yajur-veda and Atharva-veda, for
instance.
" O disciple, a student in the science of government, sail in oceans in
steamers, fly in the air in airplanes, know God the creator through the
Vedas, control thy breath through yoga, through astronomy know the
functions of day and night, know all the Vedas, Rig, Yajur, Sama and
Atharva, by means of their constituent parts."
" Through astronomy, geography, and geology, go thou to all the
different countries of the world under the sun. Mayest thou attain
through good preaching to statesmanship and artisanship, through medical
science obtain knowledge of all medicinal plants, through hydrostatics
learn the different uses of water, through electricity understand the
working of ever lustrous lightening. Carry out my instructions
willingly." (Yajur-veda 6.21).
" O royal skilled engineer, construct sea-boats, propelled on water by
our experts, and airplanes, moving and flying upward, after the clouds
that reside in the mid-region, that fly as the boats move on the sea,
that fly high over and below the watery clouds. Be thou, thereby,
prosperous in this world created by the Omnipresent God, and flier in
both air and lightning." (Yajur-veda 10.19).
" The atomic energy fissions the ninety-nine elements, covering its path
by the bombardments of neutrons without let or hindrance. Desirous of
stalking the head, ie. The chief part of the swift power, hidden in the
mass of molecular adjustments of the elements, this atomic energy
approaches it in the very act of fissioning it by the above-noted
bombardment. Herein, verily the scientists know the similar hidden
striking force of the rays of the sun working in the orbit of the moon."
(Atharva-veda 20.41.1-3).
(source: Searching for Vedic India - By Devamitra Swami p. 155 - 157).
For more refer to chapter on Vimanas and Advanced Concepts).
Medieval Arab scholar Sa'id ibn Ahmad al-Andalusi (1029-1070) wrote in
his Tabaqat al-'umam, one of the earliest books on history of sciences:
"The first nation to have cultivated science is India. ... India is
known for the wisdom of its people. Over many centuries, all the kings
of the past have recognized the ability of the Indians in all the
branches of knowledge".
"The kings of China have stated that the kings of the world are five in
number and all the people of the world are their subjects. They
mentioned the king of China, the king of India, the king of the Turks,
the king of the Persians, and the king of the Romans.
"... They referred to the king of India as the "king of wisdom" because
of the Indians' careful treatment of 'ulum [sciences] and all the
branches of knowledge.
"The Indians, known to all nations for many centuries, are the metal
[essence] of wisdom, the source of fairness and objectivity. They are
people of sublime pensiveness, universal apologues, and useful and rare
inventions.
"... To their credit the Indians have made great strides in the study of
numbers and of geometry. They have acquired immense information and
reached the zenith in their knowledge of the movements of the stars
[astronomy] ... After all that they have surpassed all other peoples in
their knowledge of medical sciences ..."
In his book al-Andalusi goes on to give details of several Indian texts
on astronomy and tells us that the Arab scholars used them in preparing
their own almanacs.
" Ancient Indian theories lacked an empirical base, but they were
brilliant imaginative explanations of the physical structure of the
world, and in a large measure, agreed with the discoveries of modern
physics."
(source: In the eleventh-century, an important manuscript titled The
Categories of Nations was authored in Arabic by Said al-Andalusi, who
was a prolific author and in the powerful position of a judge for the
king in Muslim Spain. A translation and annotation of this was done S.I.
Salem and Alok Kumar and published by University of Texas Press:
“Science in the Medieval World”. This is the first English translation
of this eleventh-century manuscript. Quotes are from Chapter V: “Science
in India”).
- A. L. Basham, Australian Indologist
Two system of Indian thought propound physical theories suggestively
similar to those of Greece. Kanada, founder of the Vaishehika
philosophy, held that the world was composed of atoms as many in kind as
the various elements. The Jains approximated to Democritus by teaching
that all atoms were of the same kind, producing different effects by
diverse modes of combination. Kanada believed light and heat to be
varieties of the same substance; Udayana taught that all heat comes from
the sun; and Vachaspati, like Newton, interpreted light as composed of
minute particles emitted by substances and striking the eye. Musical
notes and intervals were analyzed and mathematically calculated in the
Indian treatises on music. and the Pyrthogorean Law was formulated by
which the number of vibrations, and therefore the pitch of the note,
varies inversely as the length of the string between the point of
attachment and the point of touch.
The calculation of eclipses was given by Indian astronomers, refer to
verses from Varahamihira's texts, which give the true reasons for
eclipses as the earth's and moon's shadows (no rAhu kEtu here).
For more refer to History of Indian Science & Technology.
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