How the ancient India was so advanced in science and astronomy?

             Today whenever anyone talks about Indian contribution to science and astronomy, some counter questions are arriving. Questions like, how can ancient Indian peoples predict the shape of the earth? Is it the distance from the sun? Is there any proof of it? And all that.  So, the ancient Indian peoples were not merely religious gurus; they were scientists and astronomers. India had an old tradition of astronomical observation. Let look at some examples of that.

CARVING IN THE KASHMIR

            This carving is found in Kashmir, which is about 6000 years old, and it depicts two suns in the sky with various constellations drawn around them. So, scientists did some analysis of this. They looked back at the astronomical data of what happened many thousand years ago, and they found a supernova, an exploding star, which was exploded around 4600 BCE. It’s called supernova hb9. It tells you that Indians have been recorded astronomical events for thousands of years.

INDIAN ANCEINT CALENDARS

         India had the most accurate ancient calendar of all time. The Indian traditional loony solar calendar. Is today more accurate than the current modern calendars we use today? The Indian calendar was so precise because of thousands of years of astronomical observations and data collection.

        Tycho Brahe got data from Indian astronomers via Jesuit Priest. So, there was a great deal of Indian astrological data that the Jesuit Priest got from India and dropped to Europe. Then his student Johannes Kepler used all this voluminous data to compile the three capital Kepler's laws of motion.

      When the Greek’s came to India during the time of Chandragupta Maurya, when Sulcus Niketas sent his emissaries to Chandragupta Maurya, these Greek’s recorded that the Indians had a calendar called the sap rishi calendar. That dated back to 6000 something BCE, and they have lineages of thousands of kings. So, that is Indian historical tradition. Indians had an exact calendar. And it can only be done if you have thousands of years of astronomical data.

Ancient Indian Philosophers

SAGE KANAD

      Sage Kanad was an atomist. He is the first human being known to us who propounded the atomic hypothesis. That everything is made out of atoms. He discovered the atomic structure, atomic theory, and even sub-atomic particles some 2600 years before. vaisheshika Darshana of Canada explains the fundamental physics in verse form. 

Sage Sushruta

        The inventor of surgeries was Indian physician Sage Sushrut, born in around 600 BCE, known as the Father of Surgery. Nowadays, each surgery has a specialized surgeon, but the most amazing thing is that Sushrut could perform all the 300 surgeries that he invented.

       Sage Sushruta is one of the renowned Saints, whose contributions towards Surgery was highly revered even now. He is revered as “Father of Plastic Surgery”, as he invented and developed various surgical procedures. His work is “Sushruta Samhita”, is one among the oldest Trilogy on medicine. His contributions towards science and Ayurveda is tremendous, where lived along the shores of Ganges, and helped many people during his time. It is very interesting to note that his guru was Sage Divodasa, to whom, the Lord Dhanvantari, the epitome of cure and medicine has passed his knowledge.

Rig Veda

         In the Rig Veda, a verse contains that "Seven horses drawn the chariot of the sun tied by the snakes” In the poetic expressions "HORSE" Symbolised a ray of light. This is further cooperated by the verse in the Atharva Veda, which says there are seven types of sun’s rays 'apt surface rashmayh'

India's Ancient Education System

India's ancient education system dates back many thousands of years and it had lots of levels. At the lowest level education was given in the temples. so, the temples were centers of education and every village, every town,every city had a temple and they would have a priest there who was played role of an educator. These gurus essentially would educate the small childrens of locality at the very basic fundamental level.Like they would taught there basic language,basic fundamentals, mother tongue,basic maths etc.

As you grew older you would go to the larger temple where you got more advanced education. the great temples of the country would provide very high level of education to those have the intellectual capability to take it.

Then you had the great universities. Like, Takshashila, Nalanda, Tilhara, Vikramshila, Shardapith and many more. There they taught vedas and all that and the only barrier to admission was your intellect.So, you would have to go through a series of examinations and oral tests.

All education was entirely free and its funded by the local kings. The entire universities were subsidized by the kings all the food was provided, quarters provided to lived. Everything was taken care by the local king or emperor who ever it was.

Conclusion

      There are so many ancient Indian scientists and philosophers who did great work and made a significant contribution to science. But the lack of written documents made their names not worthy of popularity and glory. The leading cause of the lack of written documents is continuous invasions of foreigners on Indian land. In those invasions, Indians lost most of their written knowledge. But till today, they pass there some ancient knowledge orally to the next generation.