h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Great Indian Scientists of the Ancient and Medieval Period - A87806389
Author: BENGAL TIGER (Kaushik) - U10873021

Hi All

This entry is on great Indian scientists who lived in the ancient and medieval period. Kindly provide your valuable inputs.

Bengal Tiger

This is a great piece of work!

You say that Aryabhatta was born in 476 AD and that he was the first to work out many things such as the earth is round, rotates on its own axis and so on.

All of these things were known to the Ancient Greeks many centuries before this, and I'm surprised that such information had not reached India. Are you sure of your dates here?

I do agree Plato discovered that the earth is round in around 400 BC. I will make the necessary changes. Probably the writer whose encyclopaedia I referred to meant the first Indian astronomer.

BT

A good entry this! An interesting topic and well written, the sort of thing we should see more of in the Guide.

The firsy question I did have was regarding where you wrote 'Mahavira had authored the book “Ganita Sara Samgraha” in 850 AD ... and included all the mathematical knowledge of 9th century India. This is the earliest Indian text we have, which is devoted entirely to Mathematics.'

Other texts published before 850AD are mentioned in your article – so can you clarify what you mean. Do none of these earlier books still exist, or do they only exist in extracts, not the whole text? Or do you mean that 'Ganita Sara Samgraha' is the earliest text entirely devoted to Mathematics, as opposed to earlier texts which on a range of different subjects?

The other question I would have is the use of 'Ancient and Mediæval'. No doubt about it, you definitely mention ancient authors, but normally by 'Mediæval' I would expect to see more authors who wrote between 1000-1500. The latest date you've mentioned is 1183 – so I was expecting to learn what happened in the 300 or so years after that. (Although 'Ancient and Early Medieæval' would be fine – unless the other people reading this think I'm needlessly nitpicking on this one.)

<BB<

In Europe, the term Medieval really applies to everything from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance, so it is roughly the 5th to the 15th centuries. I don't suppose India has an exact equivalent, but I see no problem with using the term Medieval in the title as you do.

Hi Kaushik!

Glad to see you back here again

This is going to be a very interesting and worthwhile Entry. I'm fascinated by it.

I have a few observations, but I'll let you work through the previous comments before I add mine, else it will all get too confusing.

Lanzababy

Thanks all for your inputs and vigilance.

'Mahavira had authored the book “Ganita Sara Samgraha” in 850 AD ... and included all the mathematical knowledge of 9th century India. This is the earliest Indian text we have, which is devoted entirely to Mathematics.'

Books written prior to this dealt with mathematics as well as astronomy. it seems astronomy was the most popular territory of research and study amongst ancient Indian scientists. This was the first book we find that was devoted solely to Mathematics.

As far as the period is concerned, in India, the medieval period refers to 8th to 18th century AD. However, we don't find much information about Indian scientists in the later medieval period. During that period, the focus seemed to have primary moved on to fine arts and literature.

BT

In the Indian sub-continent,the medieval period is further sub-divided into 2. The 'early medieval period' which lasted from the 8th to the 13th century and the 'late medieval period' which lasted from the 13th to the 18th century. Many end the period with the start of the Mughal Empire in 1526.

BT

This is really good. It is so refreshing to see guides entries that aren't so UK centric. It might be good of you to write up various religious holidays in India (or perhaps in the region of India that you are in and submit it to either the Edited Guide or with pictures you've taken if possible. Not encouraging blasphemy here but there are a lot of ceremonies that take place out of doors on public streets and so forth.

Few people realize how diverse and huge India is, and we would find it all very fascinating!

Hi Elektragheorgheni

That was an excellent idea. An entry on festivals in India would be too huge to handle by me as I would like to cover especailly the small ones. Festivals like Diwali, Dussehra or holi are known in most places of the world. An entry on smaller festivals or more regional ones would be more interesting I believe. I would rather start with one on festivals celebrated in my city, Kolkata and the my state West Bengal.
Thank you Elektragheorgheni. you've given me the topic for my next entry.

BT

This is impressive and leaves me wanting to know more about the culture in which these mathematicians and scientists lived. I don't suppose they worked on their own but were they employed by princes, or based in universities, or part of a religious community?

One statement struck me as a bit odd. In speaking about Patanjali, you wrote about a 'science of self-discipline, happiness and self-realisation'. I don't know if modern science says much about happiness! Perhaps we've gone backwards here.

Thanks minorvogonpoet

Many of these scientists were courtesans of various kings, some were faculty members of universities, especially, Nalanda University.

By science of happiness, it's meant various Yogas and meditation forms, which helps keep the mind stable and composed thus helping you to be happy. This is more like psychological analyses.

I think you mean courtiers. Courtesans were something different!

Ohh yes! I means courtiers. I was actually watching a docu on ancient India life styles, where they mentioned courtesans, and my mistake I mentioned that in the post

Ohh yes! I meant courtiers. I was actually watching a docu on ancient India life styles, where they mentioned courtesans, and my mistake I mentioned that in the post

Hi All

I've finished this entry. Would look forward to your reviews and opinions.

Morning Kaushik

This is looking much better, and almost ready to go. I've a couple of comments.

One is minor, and refers to the broken/severed nose that Sushruta fixed. In the introductory paragraph you say 'severed' and then later you write 'broken' These two terms mean different things in UK English. Could you clarify which of these is the most precise please? ie a severed nose would mean the flesh had been cut off, and a broken nose would mean just that the bone had been damaged.

The other comment I've to make is to do with the way you've made links within the entry. They are valid html, but as we're the Guide - we have an individual way which allows these links to show up in our side bar to the right.

This is how to do it, using GuideML (I've written it here including spaces, but you have to remove these when using these in the Entry itself)
For internal links to other Guide Entries

< LINK H2G2="A476606 > pythagoras < / LINK >

For external links, you also need to state the title for the sidebar.

< LINK HREF"url of the website" "Title in here" > words you want to link from < / LINK >

I hope this is clear - but if you're struggling, let me know and I can fix this on your behalf.

Lanzababy

I think the code for those links is slightly wrong. Shouldn't it be -

< LINK H2G2="A476606" > pythagoras < / LINK >

for the internal link, and

< LINK HREF="url of the website" TITLE="Title in here" > words you want to link from < / LINK >

for the external?

Apologies if I'm creating confusion here.


Geggs

Yes, sorry for typo.

Hi Lanzababy

Thanks for your help on the links.
I've used that system in my earlier entries. However, this time it's becoming very messy for some reason. So, I typed the whole thing along with the hyperlinks on an MS-Word document and then pasted the same here.
I'd certainly try out opnce again the way you suggested, and would let you know once finished.
Now I realise why the links are not showing in a side bar unlike in my previous entries.

BT