Re: QuickRef: Science of the ancient Hindus
concluding part of the book
Natural History
Minerals, plants, and animals were objects of study among the ancients and mediaevals in India as in Europe. But nothing approaching the 'sciences' of mineralogy, botany, and zoology was achieved anywhere.
(a) Minerals
The principal metals and gems were discovered, described, an utilized by the Hindus independently of any foreign help. In fact, in this braich of knowledge as in many others the people of India were the pioneers.
Mining has been in operation in India since the earliest times. The use of gems and precious stones as well as their identification also, have a long history among the Hindus.
1. The Hindus were the first to discover gold (Roscoc and Schorlemner).
2. The Hindus taught the world the art of extracting iron from the ores (Roscoe and Schorlemner)
3. Even in the Mosaic period (I491—5o BCE) precious stones and gems were in use in India. (Ball).
4. Homer mentions tin probably by its Sanskrit name kastIra. (Birdwood)
5. The Hindus supplied gold to the Persian Empire in the 5th century BCE; and the story of Indian "gold-digging ants" (miners) is famous in Greek literature tbrough Herodotus and others.
6. At first the Hindus knew six metals; gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, and lead. They discovered zinc, the seventh metal, sometime during the fourteenth century. (It is mentioned by name as a separate metal in madanapala—nighaNTu (1374). In Europe it Was discovered by Paracelsus in 1540.
7. The Hindu 'doctrine of seven metals' was not, like, the Greek and Saracen, influenced by the doctrine of the mystic influence of the seven planets.
8. Examination of the genuineness of gems was an art even in the first century BCE (cf. mRchChakaTikam--the little clay cart, a drama by king ShUdraka).
9. There have been different methods of enumeration and classification of the precious gems in different periods. The last important phase is embodied in the 'doctrine of nine gems.' These are ruby, pearl, coral, emerald, topaz, diamond, sapphire, gomeda (agate or zircon), and vaidUrya (chrysoberyl, or lapis lazuli). This doctrine was enunciated proably in the tenth century by the astronomer ShrIpati.
10. The nine gems are believed to have a mystic connection with nine planets. ShrIpati was the first to add RAhu (personification of the ascending node of the moon) and Ketu (moon’s descending node) to the list of the generally recognized seven planets’
(b) Plants
The following ideas of rudimentary plant-physiology have been credited to the experience of the 'rhizotomi', pharmocologists, plant-physicians (vRkShA-yurvedists) and horticulturists of ancient and mediteval India by Bhimchandra Chatterj:
i. Sexuality: Flowers are the organs of plants.
2. Phosphorescence, and exudation of water.
3. Photo-synthesis: The sun is the source of energy in the fuel; (i) plants assimilate potential energy from the sun, (ii) the less refractive rays (red, yellow, of the setting sun are specially adapted to by plants.
4. Plants are living organisms: They have the following phenomena of life: (a) sap (b) power of movement, heliotropic, nyct other movements, sensitiveness to touchness etc., (c) growth and reproduction.
• Characteristics of plant life were mentioned the followers of the NyAya school: Udayana, and GuNaratna.
(c) Animals
Animals have had an important place in the medicine, dietetics, economic life, fine art and religion of the Hindus. The people have thus had experience of the life-habits, habitats, external characteristics, etc., of animals, both domestic and wild. This accounts for their intimate familiariIy with the topics generally treated of in descriptive zoology.
i. Like the science of the diseases of plants,.veterinary science also is very old in India. The Hindus had hospitals for animals in the 3rd century BCE.
2. The Hindus could set fractures and dislocations in animals. They were perfectly acquainted with the anatomy of the goat, sheep, horse, and other animals in sacrifices.
3. They were specialists in the science of horses and elephants, the two animals important in warfare. Shalihotra is the founder of the science of horses, and Palakapya of the science of elephants. There is a vast literature on the subject.
4. Equine dentistry: The changes in the development and color of the six incisors of the lower jaw constituted, in Hindu practice, the guide to the age of the horse. This is modern European practice also.
5. Snake-poison has been used as an article in Occidental thateria medica during the last two or three decades. But it has been a reconized drug in India since early times.
6. The toxicologists of the Sushruta school of medicine devoted special attention to the study of snakes. That study was followed up in some of the 'Purana' schools..
7. Various systems of classification were built up: (1) according to the nature of generation, eg., from placentalia, or egg, etc. (in the writings of the schools of medicine); (2) according to the habitat and mode of life, and usefulness to man; (3) according to the number of senses possessed by animals. (This was the system of Umasvati.
8. The Sushruta-school names (1) six varieties of ants, (2) six varieties of flies (3) five varieties of mosquitoes (including one marine and one mountain kind), (4) eight varieties of centipedes, (5) thirty varieties of scorpions, (6) sixteen varieties of spiders.
9. Leeches have been used by Hindu surgeons since very early times. Sushruta gives a detailed account of their varieties, habits, mode of application, etc. There are twelve varieties of leeches, six of which are venomous and six useful. The venomous are found near putrid fish or animals in foul water. The good are found in clear deep pools which contain water-lilies.
10. Ladyayana is quoted by Dalvana, the commentator to Sushruta, as a great authority on insects and reptiles. According to this ancient specialist, the various forms of insects are to be distinguished from one another by the following marks: (i) Dottings, (2) wings, (3) pedal appendages, (4) mouth, with antenna or flippers, (5) claws, (6) sharp, pointed hairs or filaments, (7) stings in the tail, (8) hymenopteroils character, (9) humming or other noise, (10) size, (11) structure of the body, (12) sexual organs (13) poison and its action on bodies.
ii. Dalvana’s descriptions of deer and birds are precise and complete.
Conclusion
• There thus grew up in India a vast amount of specialized scientific literature, each branch with its own technical terminology. The positive sciences of the Hindus were not mere auxiliaries or hand to the 'architectonic' science of neeti or artha (politics, economics, and sociology.) The shAstras on plant and animal life, veterinary, metals and gems, chemistry, surgery, embry anatomy, symptomology of diseases, arithmetic, algebra, astronomy, architecture, music (acoustics) etc., had indepndent status. Besides, like 'Natural History', there have been scientific cyclopaedias in Sanskrit, eg., the bRhat samhitA (6th century CE).
• Scientific investigation was not confined to a particular province of India or to any race of the Hindu population. It was a cooperative taking, a process of cumulative effort in intelligent advance. Thus, among the heroes of Hindu medicine, Charaka (600 BCE) belongs to the Indus in the N.W., Sushruta (100 CE) is claimed for Punjab as well as Benares in the Middle VAgbhaTa (700 CE) belongs to Sindh (Western) Vrinda to the Deccan (Middle South), C pani (900) to Bengal (Eastern India), ShrIdhara (1350) to Rajputana (Further West), Deva (1350) to Vijayanagara (Extreme South), Narahari (17th century) is claimed for Kashmir (Extreme North) but belongs most probabably to Maharashtra (Western Coasts).
• No one hypothesis or theory dominated thought in any age, or monopolized the. research or investigations in successive epochs. The intellectual universe of the Hindus was 'pluralistic'. There were different schools criticising, correcting, and modifying one another's inquiries.
The story of scientific investigation among the Hindus is thus, like that among other nations, the story of a growth and development in critical inquiry, sceptical attitude, and rationalism. Historically and statistically speaking, superstition has not had a deeper and more extensive hold on the Oriental intellect than on the Occidental.
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रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥
To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.
--viShNu purANam
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