4 Discoveries Of Ancient India That Were Rediscovered By The West

Many times we have witnessed some westerners who talk about making teh world civilized. They talk about how they developed the underdeveloped lands and made them civilized and also provided them better medical facilities and shared their technological advancements with others. However, much to their surprise and astonishment, India and its people were already leading a civilized life back in the ancient era. Those were the Good Old Days when development was going hand in hand with technology. Some of the discoveries of ancient Indian ms have been discussed in this WrytUp.

The Atomic Theory

The West recognises John Dalton as the man who gave the Atomic Theory. However, Dalton did this in the 18th Century AD, an Indian educator had already given this theory long before Dalton was born. In fact, Acharya Kanada had given the Atomic Theory that “A parmanu is the smallest particle of a substance”, in the 4th century BC. His various theories on Physics have influenced many writers including the notable surgeon, Sushruta.

The Duration of a Solar Day
The duration of a Solar Day was calculated by the Western scientists and philosophers in the medieval period. However, Bhaskar Acharya who was a notable Indian mathematician, had calculated the duration of the Solar Day back in the ancient times. The duration of the Solar Day as given by Bhaskaracharya was 365.258756484 days which was more accurate than that done by the West. In his book Siddhanta Shiromani, Bhaskar Acharya has taken about various other laws which were later verified the West.

Surgery
While surgery in modern time requires sophisticated equipments which are sterilized before surgery, it would be astonishing to know that the Indians have been conducting various types of surgeries including cesarean, cataract, brain surgery and many more. In fact, Acharya Sushruta in his book Sushruta Samhita has described 300 types of surgeries on humans and 150 instruments that are required to conduct surgeries. He was also prominent in medicine and used anesthesia to relieve the patient of his pain during the surgery. This was done in the 7th century BC.

Medicine

While India has been a civilization since several thousand years and hasn't ever recorded an epidemic in its ancient time unlike Europe. This was possible due to the theories and discoveries in the field of medicine by notable people like Charaka, who is also the Father of Medicine. Charaka has written a book called Charaka Samhita which is a summary of the Ayurveda. He was a specialist of treating people of Heart diseases as well as diseases like tuberculosis and diabetes. The Charaka Samhita talks of 100000 medicinal plants along with their health benefits. He was also the first one to give the health benefits of a proper diet in humans.

Therefore, do not try to invade the intellect of a person because if he's not like you, it doesn't mean that he's uncivilized.