Legacy of Ancient India in Science and Civilisation

At a Glance

• Maths Notation, decimal, zero
• Metallurgy Steel (wootz) from 200 BC
• Grammar Panini’s Ashtadhyayi
• Medicine Sushruta and Charaka
• Limit Caste and unequal land
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Ancient History: Philosophy, Cultural Interaction and Transition

Where Does It Fit?

This is the last topic of the course on ancient India. The previous topic covered the sequence of social change, and this one sums up what ancient India gave and what it left unresolved. Previous topic: Sequence of Social Changes in Ancient India. The next period begins with Gurjara-Pratihara Dynasty (8th–10th Century).

What Did Ancient India Contribute in Religion, Society and Polity?

In short: India gave world religions and philosophy, a state model and social institutions, with both strengths and burdens.

Brahmanism, or Hinduism, developed as the dominant religion and influenced art, literature and society. India also gave rise to Jainism and Buddhism; Buddhism disappeared from India but spread as far as Japan and Central Asia, projecting Indian art, language and literature abroad, while Jainism stayed, especially among trading communities in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka. In India, varna laws had the sanction of both state and religion, and varnas and castes were made hereditary by law and religion so that vaishyas paid taxes and shudras served; belief in a better next birth lessened tension, so less coercion was needed than in Greece and Rome. Indian thinkers viewed the world as an illusion and deliberated on the relation between soul and god, and also developed a materialist view, through Samkhya, Vaisheshika and Charvaka; the Samkhya of Kapila does not recognise god. In polity, the Arthashastra shows that Indians could run a large empire, Ashoka adopted peace after Kalinga, and several kings practised religious tolerance. Besides Greece, India was the only other country to experiment with some form of democracy, as in The Mahajanapadas and the Republican Experiment. The philosophies are in Six Systems of Indian Philosophy and Charvaka and the Materialistic View of Life.

What Did It Contribute in Science and Technology?

The Harappan culture was the first great contribution, covering an area larger than Egypt or Mesopotamia, with the largest number of fired bricks and the best town-planning. Indians were proficient in dyeing, and lustrous lasting colours explain why the Ajanta paintings are intact. Steel was first developed in India in about 200 BC and exported, later called wootz, and no country could match Indian steel swords. Panini systematised Sanskrit in the Ashtadhyayi in the fifth century BC, the first result of the scientific outlook. By the third century BC mathematics, astronomy and medicine developed separately, and Indians made three contributions in mathematics: notation, the decimal system and the use of zero. The Arabs adopted the Indian numerals, which they called hinds, and the earliest epigraphic evidence of the decimal system is in the early fifth century AD. The zero was discovered about the second century BC, and in Arabia its earliest use was AD 873. Algebra reached Western Europe from the Arabs, who had it from India. The Sulvasutras of about the fifth century BC and Apastamba in the second century BC give geometry for altars. Aryabhata (AD 476 to 500) gave the cause of eclipses, a reasonably correct circumference of the earth, the idea that the earth rotates, and trigonometry; Varahamihira’s Brihat Samhita was written in the sixth century, and Brahmagupta developed algebra in the early seventh century. In medicine, Sushruta described operating on cataract and stone with 121 instruments, and Charaka’s Charakasamhita is an encyclopaedia of Indian medicine that names many plants. The Gupta-age work is covered in Science and Technology in the Gupta Age. Indian dyers invented lasting colours and the blue colour, and Indian smiths were the first to make steel.

What About Art, Education and the Limits?

The Mauryan pillars are famous for their gloss, and the lion capital is the national emblem of India. The Ajanta caves have thirty cave temples built between the second century BC and the seventh century AD, with paintings unmatched until the Renaissance, mostly of the Gupta period. Indian art spread to Central Asia, China and Southeast Asia; Kanishka Gandhara Graeco-Roman style Buddha Mathura Indigenous, red sandstone South Nagarjunakonda and Amaravati…">Gandhara art fused Indian, Central Asian and Hellenistic elements and gave the first Buddha statue, and the temple of Angkor Vat and the Borobudur temple were modelled on southern Indian temples. In education Nalanda was an early residential teaching institution housing thousands of monks, and only those who passed the test of the dvarapandita, the scholar at the gate, were admitted. In literature, the Rig Veda is the earliest specimen of Indo-Aryan literature, and Kalidasa’s Abhijnanashakuntalam has been translated into all major languages. The art side is in Mauryan Art and Architecture and Gupta Art and Architecture.

The weaknesses are also part of the legacy. The caste system rests on brahmanical ideology and persists to this day. Shudras, including untouchables, were convinced of their inborn inferiority, and women were considered property; these relics have not completely disappeared. The Satavahanas began land grants with administrative rights, and later rulers widely followed the practice, causing unequal land distribution and impoverishment of cultivators, with opposition to grants punished. The ideal of the world as a family, vasudhaiva kutumbakam, made little impact. As an analytical point, a balanced evaluation credits real achievements in science and art while recognising how caste, patriarchy and landlordism limited creativity and equality. The transition is in From Ancient to Medieval – Agrarian Changes and Rise of Landlords.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Summary topic Revision of the course
• Contributions Prelims lists
• Evaluation Balanced Mains answers

What Came Next?

This is the final topic of the ancient India course; the study of medieval India follows in the next subject. Next topic: none in this subject.

Key People and Terms

• Wootz Indian crucible steel
• Ashtadhyayi Panini’s grammar
• Decimal system Base-ten numeration
• Sushrutasamhita Surgical text
• Charakasamhita Medical encyclopaedia
• Dvarapandita Scholar testing entrants at Nalanda

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions ask for an assessment of ancient India’s achievements. These points add depth.

• Science Maths, astronomy, medicine
• Culture Art, literature, education
• Limits Caste, unequal land