An Article by Justice Katju
A few years back some elderly relatives of mine wanted to visit the Akshardhaam temple in Delhi, so I took them there.
Among other things there, is a cultural boat-ride inside a tunnel, and we went on it. Inside this tunnel are scenes from ancient Indian history. Many of these are truthful, like Sushruta doing a surgery, Aryabhat explaining mathematics to his students, Panini teaching grammar, etc. But there was one scene which completely put me off.
That was a scene showing an aeroplane allegedly built in ancient India.
Afterwards, I went to the head priest of the temple, and told him that while the other scenes were truthful and should certainly be shown to people who should know about the great achievements of our ancestors, the scene of an aeroplane in ancient India was false, as there were no aeroplanes then. Showing such falsehood dilutes the great achievements of our ancestors by mixing truth with falsehood.
Unfortunately in recent years there have been such false and fantastic claims by even high political authorities and some scientists in India who want to curry favours from them, which dilutes our real great achievements in science in the past, and makes us a laughing stock in the world. I may therefore deal with this.
Truths
- One of the greatest inventions in the world was the decimal system in mathematics invented by Indians about 2500 years ago, without which scientific progress would have been extremely slow, if not impossible. I have explained this in my article below Indians were once leaders in science Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta, Varahamihir, etc made great advances in mathematics ( see on google ).
- Ancient Indians also made great advances in astronomy, carefully studying movements of stars and planets with naked eyes ( there were no telescopes then ). The ‘patras’ used in India on the basis of their calculations can accurately predict the times of solar and lunar eclipses even today.
- Plastic surgery was invented by Sushrut in India 2000 years ago, while Europeans learnt it only about 200 years back. In plastic surgery, no plastic is used. In plastic surgery, a piece of one’s own body is removed and placed on another part of one’s body.
For instance, in a heart bypass surgery (when a heart artery gets blocked), a part of a vein in one’s leg is removed and is placed in one’s own heart. We cannot put a piece of someone else’s body in our body, because our immune system will reject it.
All this was discovered by Sushruta.
Ancient Indian physicians such as Charak were perhaps ahead of the whole world in medicine at that time
- In the Harappa-Mohenjodaro (Indus Valley) civilisation, we had developed the concept of town planning (which exists only on paper in most of our cities today), an excellent drainage and sewage system (which has largely collapsed in many cities in India today), and created a surprisingly modern port (at Lothal)
- Ancient Indians had a profound knowledge of architecture. For instance, south Indian temples are massive and unbelievable unless one visits them, and they reveal the high level of knowledge of architecture and geometry of the ancient and medieval south Indians. The Brihadishvara temple of Tanjore is simply astounding, and one wonders how the builders could use such huge stones in building it (which reminds one of the Egyptian pyramids).
The Konark temple of Odisha, Martand temple in Kashmir, etc also show the high level of knowledge of architecture of ancient Indians.
The gigantic rock relief ‘Descent of the Ganges’ in the ancient port city of Mahabalipuram, capital of the Pallav Empire, is truly amazing.
- Scientific grammar was invented by the great grammarian Panini about 2500 years ago. Even today the Roman alphabets used in English, French, Germans etc are unscientifically arranged, all jumbled up. There is no logical reason why d is followed by e, e by f, h by i, p by q, y by z, etc.
On the other hand, Panini in the first 14 sutras of his book Ashtadhyayi arranged vowels and consonants scientifically. Thus, the ka varga ( sequence ) i.e. ka kha ga gha nga has 5 consonants, all sounds emitted from the throat. The cha varga has sounds emitted from the middle of the tongue, the tta varga from the roof of the mouth, the ta varga from the tip of the tongue, and the pa varga from the lips.
Panini’s grammar is used even today in computer science
Panini’s Grammar and Computer Science
Falsehoods
- Many people say that in ancient India there were aeroplanes. People who make this claim refer to the Pushpak Viman mentioned in the Ramayan.
Now it is true that the Ramayan mentions Pushpak Viman, an alleged flying chariot on which Lord Rama was said to have brought Sita from Lanka to Ayodhya, after defeating Ravana. On this basis, it is claimed that there were aeroplanes in ancient India.
However, we must understand what the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are. They are epic poems, and a poet has the right to exaggerate as he has what is called ‘poetic licence’. So, one must not take all things in poetry literally. Many things are imaginative.
Everyone knows that the first aeroplane in the world (the Kitty Hawk) was built in America by the Wright brothers in 1903.
If there were aeroplanes in ancient India, then there must have been engines in ancient India (because an aeroplane requires an engine). In that case, soldiers should have fought in tanks, instead of in chariots and horses as depicted in the Ramayan and Mahabharata.
- Similarly, the claim that there were guided missiles and atom bombs in the ancient India (because there is a mention of brahmastra, agnyastra, narayanastra, etc., in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana) is also nonsense. These were only poetic imaginations.
- Indian Prime Minister Modi claimed that ancient Indians knew head transplant surgery and genetic science, and he referred to the alleged head transplant of the god Ganesh and birth of Karna outside Kunti’s womb in the Mahabharat.
Vedic plastic surgery to test-tube Karna — non-science claims flowed from Modi downwards
PM Modi takes leaf from Batra book: Mahabharat genetics, Lord Ganesha surgery
Indian prime minister claims genetic science existed in ancient times
In my opinion, the claim that ancient Indians knew head transplant surgery is humbug
Firstly, a lot of our blood while circulating in our body goes to the head (maybe one-third of the total), and therefore, a head surgery causes a lot of blood loss, which one’s body will not be able to sustain.
Secondly, it must be realised that one is really one’s brain. All one’s thinking, reasoning, memories, commands to the various parts of the body, recording of sensations, etc., are functions of the brain.
If one loses one’s leg or hand, an artificial limb can replace it. Also, there can be a heart, kidney or liver transplant. But if one’s head is transplanted (assuming that can be done), and another person’s head is put in its place, it will be that other person living in one’s body.
- In January 2019, speakers at the 106th Indian Science Congress claimed that it was ancient Hindus who pioneered stem cell research. “We had 100 Kauravas from one mother because of stem cell and test tube technology,” G Nageshwar Rao, the Vice Chancellor of Andhra University said, referring to the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharata.
This shows how pseudo science has been promoted in recent years, not just by politicians ( who of course have their agenda ), but also by persons claiming to be scientists ( as in Nazi Germany ).
- In April 2018, Tripura’s chief minister Biplab Deb used an example from the Mahabharata to claim that the internet was invented by ancient Indians thousands of years ago. He said the fact that one of the characters in the epic, Sanjaya, had been able to give an account of the Kurukshetra battle that was taking place miles away to King Dhritarashtra proved that ancient India had the internet and satellite technologies.
Others have claimed that we discovered the theory of gravity long before Newton and Einstein, that cow urine can cure cancer, etc.
More examples of such ridiculous claims even by prominent people are given in the articles below :
The false scientific claims made during Modi’s first term
BJP and Science: From Ganesha’s plastic surgery to ‘Yoga can cure cancer’
Bowel cleanse for better DNA: the nonsense science of Modi’s India
Those magnificent men and their machines
The Indian born Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan has said that the Indian Science Congress is a circus, and vowed he would never attend it again
Why do Modi and his Mantris Mock Science?
Indian Academics Confront the Threat of Nationalistic Pseudoscience
All this reminds us of Nazi Germany, where racial ‘science” was assiduously and relentlessly promoted
Science and political ideology: The example of Nazi Germany
Deep roots of Nazi science revealed
I submit that by making absurd and untrue claims about our alleged scientific ‘achievements’, we mix up the true with the untrue, replace scientific rigour by humbug, and make the true, which we should be proud of, questionable in the eyes of foreigners, and often laughed at.
Today India has huge socio-economic problems ( poverty, malnutrition, unemployment, etc ) and in my opinion these can only be solved by science. But this must be real science, not pseudo science, bunkum, and humbuggery
