SCIENTISTS OF SANATANA

DHARMA
6TH CENTURY BCE TO 7TH CENTURY CE
INTRODUCTION
• THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN BHARATAVARSHA IS VERY
ANCIENT GOING BACK TO THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD

• SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS FLOURISHED IN THE HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION AS

WELL AS DURING THE VEDIC PERIOD

• IN THE YAJURVEDA SAMHITA, NUMBERS AS HIGH AS 10^12 WERE BEING

INCLUDED IN THESE TEXTS

• BY THE TIME OF THE PERIOD OF EMPIRES, SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS AND

MEDICINE HAD BECOME ESTABLISHED WITH GREAT CENTRES OF RESEARCH
AND EDUCATION FLOURISHING

• SOME OF THE MAJOR SCIENTISTS WERE PANINI, SUSHRUTA, CHARAKA,

ARYABHATA AND BRAHMAGUPTA
 PANINI (400 BCE - 350 BCE)
• DAKSHIPUTRA PANINI WAS BORN AT SALATURA IN GANDHARA IN AROUND 400
BCE

• NOTHING IS KNOWN WITH CERTAINTY ABOUT HIS LIFE EXCEPT THAT HE WAS
BORN IN GANDHARA AND LATER LIVED IN TAKSHASHILA

• HE WAS EDUCATED AT TAKSHASHILA AND LATER BECAME A RENOWNED

TEACHER OF VYAKARANA (GRAMMAR)

• HIS MOST IMPORTANT WORK IS ASHTADHYAYI (EIGHT CHAPTERS), WHICH

DEFINES THE RULES OF SANSKRIT GRAMMAR

• THE ASHTADHYAYI CONSISTS OF 3959 SUTRAS DIVIDED INTO EIGHT CHAPTERS

• EACH CHAPTER IS DIVIDED INTO FOUR SECTIONS CALLED PADAS
CONTD.
• EACH SECTION DEFINES MORPHOLOGY (CONSTRUCTION OF WORDS) AND
SYNTAX(RULES FOR SENTENCES)

• THE MOST IMPORTANT SECTION IS VIDHISUTRA I.E. RULES OF OPERATIONS

WHICH DEFINES THE RULES FOR THE USAGE OF SANSKRIT

• OTHER MAIN SECTIONS ARE PARIBHASHA - METARULES,

• ADHIKARA - HEADINGS
• ATIDESHA SUTRA - RULES OF EXTENSION
• NIYAMA SUTRA - RULES OF RESTRICTION
• PRATISHEDHA SUTRA & NISHEDHA SUTRA - RULES OF NEGATION
CONTD.
• THE ASHTADHYAYI DISTINGUISHES BETWEEN USAGE IN EVERYDAY LIFE AS
WELL AS THOSE TO BE USED WHILE RECITING THE VEDAS

• THE ASHTADHYAYI DEFINES ALL THE RULES WITH MATHEMATICAL PRECISION

AND HENCE IS CONSIDERED AN IDEAL MATHEMATICAL MODEL

• TWO OTHER WORKS, JAMBAVATI VIJAYA AND PATALA VIJAYA, ARE ATTRIBUTED
TO PANINI

• HOWEVER, THESE HAVE BEEN LOST

• THE RULES DEFINED BY PANINI WOULD SET THE DEFINITIONS OF SANSKRIT
USED IN THE MAHAKAVYAS BY LATER SCHOLARS
SUSHRUTA (600 BCE - 500 BCE)
• SUSHRUTA WAS A SURGEON WHO LIVED IN THE CITY OF KASHI AROUND 550
BCE

• HE WROTE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA, ONE OF THE EARLIEST TEXTS ON SHALYA

TANTRA (SURGERY)

• SUSHRUTA WOULD STUDY DISEASES FIRST HAND AND EVEN EXPERIMENT ON

DEAD BODIES

• HENCE, HIS KNOWLEDGE OF HUMAN ANATOMY IS VERY DETAILED

• IN ITS PRESENT FORM, THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA IS DIVIDED INTO 186
CHAPTERS

• IN IT, MORE THAN 1100 DISEASES ARE MENTIONED INCLUDING EIGHT TYPES
OF JAUNDICE AND TWENTY SIX KINDS OF URINARY AILMENTS

• THE NAMES OF OVER 760 PLANTS ARE MENTIONED FOR USE IN MEDICINE
CONTD.
• ALL PARTS OF PLANTS, SUCH AS ROOTS, BARK, JUICE, RESIN, FLOWERS ETC.
COULD BE USED

• SOME OF THE IMPORTANT PLANTS INCLUDE CINNAMON, SESAME, PEPPERS,

CARDAMOM AND GINGER

• THERE IS ALSO THE DESCRIPTION OF THE METHOD USED TO SELECT AND

PRESERVE A DEAD BODY FOR THE PURPOSE OF ITS DETAILED STUDY

• USUALLY, THE BODY OF AN OLD PERSON OR WHO DIED OF A SEVERE

DISEASE WAS NOT TO BE UTILIZED FOR STUDIES

• THE SELECTED BODY NEEDED TO BE PERFECTLY CLEANED AND PRESERVED

IN THE BARK OF A TREE

• IT WAS THEN KEPT IN A CAGE AND THEN HIDDEN CAREFULLY IN A RIVER

WHERE THE RIVER WATER WOULD SOFTEN IT
CONTD.
• AFTER SEVEN DAYS, THE BODY WAS REMOVED FROM THE RIVER
• IT WAS THEN CLEANED WITH A BRUSH MADE OF GRASS ROOTS, HAIR AND
BAMBOO

• WHEN THIS WAS DONE, EVERY INNER AND OUTER PART OF THE BODY COULD
BE SEEN CLEARLY

• THE SURGICAL PROCEDURES ARE DESCRIBED STEP BY STEP

• ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT OPERATIONS WAS RHINOPLASTY (REPAIRING
THE NOSE), A TYPE OF PLASTIC SURGERY

• DUE TO THIS PROCEDURE, SUSHRUTA IS CALLED ‘THE FATHER OF PLASTIC

SURGERY’

• ANOTHER IMPORTANT OPERATION WAS OPHTHALMIC SURGERY (REMOVAL OF

CATARACTS),
CONTD.
• OTHER IMPORTANT OPERATIONS INCLUDE REMOVAL OF A DEAD FOETUS,
REPAIRING A DAMAGED RECTUM, AND LITHOTOMY (SURGICAL INCISIONS INTO
HOLLOW ORGANS TO REMOVE STONES AND MASSES)

• THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA ALSO DESCRIBES 101 INSTRUMENTS TO BE USED IN

SURGERIES

• HE ALSO DEVELOPED ANESTHETICS USING PLANTS SUCH AS HEMP AND OPIUM

AND ALSO FERMENTED JUICE AND WINES

• THE SUSHRUTA SAMHITA WAS LATER EXPANDED ON BY LATER AUTHORS AND

HENCE IS NOW A WORK BY MULTIPLE AUTHORS
CHARAKA (100 CE)
• THE TITLE ‘CHARAKA’ WAS GIVEN TO WANDERING PHYSICIANS IN ANCIENT
INDIA

• THE MOST FAMOUS CHARAKA WAS THE RAJ VAIDYA IN THE COURT OF KING
KANISHKA

• HE WROTE THE BOOK, CHARAKA SAMHITA, A COMPREHENSIVE BOOK ON

AYURVEDA

• HE LAID STRESS ON THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE THROUGH CLEANLINESS

AND ORDERLY LIVING

• THE ORIGINAL CHARAKA SAMHITA WAS BASED ON THE TEACHINGS OF

PUNARVASU ATREYA AND WAS WRITTEN BY HIS DISCIPLE AGNIVESHA

• THE AGNIVESHA SAMHITA WAS REFINED AND EXPANDED BY CHARAKA

• THE BOOK WAS FINALLY COMPLETED BY DHRIDHABALA
CONTD.
• THE CHARAKA SAMHITA DESCRIBES A LARGE NUMBER OF DISEASES AND
GIVES METHODS OF IDENTIFYING THEIR CAUSES AS WELL AS METHODS FOR
THEIR TREATMENT

• MORE STRESS IS LAID ON REMOVING THE CAUSE OF THE DISEASE RATHER

THAN SIMPLY TREATING IT I.E. PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE

• HE LAYS STRESS ON DIGESTION, METABOLISM, IMMUNITY AS IMPORTANT

FOR HEALTH

• CHARAKA ALSO DESCRIBES CONGENITAL AND GENETIC DISORDERS

ARYABHATA (476 CE TO 550 CE)
• ARYABHATA WAS AN EMINENT MATHEMATICIAN, ASTRONOMER AND
PHYSICIST WHO LIVED IN THE FIFTH CENTURY CE

• HE WAS BORN AT KUSUMAPURA NEAR PATALIPUTRA AND STUDIED AT

NALANDA UNIVERSITY

• AT THE AGE OF 23, HE WROTE ARYABHATIYA, WHICH WAS A SUMMARY OF

MATHEMATICS OF HIS TIME

• HE ALSO WROTE ANOTHER WORK, ARYA SIDDHANTA, WHICH IS NOW LOST

• THE ARYABHATIYA IS DIVIDED INTO FOUR SECTIONS
• IN THE FIRST SECTION, HE DESCRIBES THE METHOD OF DENOTING BIG
DECIMAL NUMBERS BY ALPHABETS

• IN THE SECOND SECTION, HE DESCRIBES OPERATIONS FROM NUMBER

THEORY, GEOMETRY, TRIGONOMETRY AND ALGEBRA
CONTD.
• IN THESE CHAPTERS, HE GAVE THE VALUE OF PI AND ALSO NAMED THE FIRST
TEN DECIMAL PLACES

• HE ALSO GAVE THE DATE OF THE MAHABHARATA WAR AS 3102 BCE

• THE LAST TWO SECTIONS OF THE ARYABHATIYA ARE DEVOTED TO
ASTRONOMY, ALSO CALLED KHAGOLASHASTRA

• HE SAID THAT THE EARTH MOVES AROUND ITS AXIS AND THAT THE DAY
STARTS AT MIDNIGHT AND LASTS 24 HOURS

• HE ALSO GAVE EXPLANATIONS FOR ECLIPSES AS BEING THE REFLECTIONS OF

THE SUN AND THE EARTH AND THE MOON
BRAHMAGUPTA (598 CE TO 665 CE)
• BRAHMAGUPTA WAS AN EMINENT MATHEMATICIAN FROM BHILLAMALLA IN
RAJASTHAN

• HE WAS EDUCATED AT UJJAIN WHERE HE SPENT MOST OF HIS LIFE

• HE WROTE TWO IMPORTANT MATHEMATICAL WORKS -
BRAHMASPOTASIDDHANTA (CORRECTLY ESTABLISHED RULES OF BRAHMA) ON
MATHEMATICS AND KHANDAKHADYAKA (AN EDIBLE PIECE) ON ASTRONOMY

• IN BRAHMASPOTASIDDHANTA, OPERATIONS FOR ALGEBRA, QUADRATIC

EQUATIONS, SQUARES AND CUBES, THE ZERO AND NEGATIVE NUMBERS ARE
DESCRIBED

• THE KHANDAKHADYAKA DESCRIBES ASTRONOMY SUCH AS THE LONGITUDES

OF PLANETS, ECLIPSES OF THE SUN AND THE MOON ETC.