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Ancient India's Contribution to
Physics and Chemistry
Ancient Indian theories lacked an empirical base, but they were brilliant imaginative explanations of the physical structure of the world, and in a large measure, agreed with the discoveries of modern physics.
- A.L. Basham,
Australian Indologist
Coinage dating from the 8th Century B.C. to the17th Century A.D. Numismatic evidence of the advances made by Smelting technology in ancient India.
It would be surprising for many Indians today to know that the concepts of atom (Ann, Parmanu) and relativity (Sapekshavada) were explicitly stated by an Indian philosopher nearly 600 years before the brith of Christ. These ideas which were of fundamental import had been developed in India in a very abstract manner. This was so as their exponents were not physicians in today's sense of the term. They were philosophers and their ideas about the physical reality were integrated with those of philosophy and theology.
The Five Basic Physical Elements
From the Vedic times, around 3000 B.C. to 1000 B.C., Indians (Indo-Aryans) had classified the material world into four elements viz. Earth (Prithvi), fire (Agni), air (Maya) and water (Apa). To these four elements was added a fifth one viz. ether or Akasha. Ac cording to some scholars these five elements or Pancha Mahabhootas were identified with the various human senses of perception; earth with smell, air with feeling, fire with vision, water with taste and ether with sound. Whatever the validity behind this interpretation, it is true that since very ancient times Indians had perceived the material world as comprising these 5 elements. The Buddhist philosophers who came later, rejected ether as an element and replaced it with life, joy and sorrow.
Author : Shri Sudheer Birodkar
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