—High Middle Ages
The Arthashastra of Kautilya mentions the construction of dams and bridges.[42] The use ofsuspension bridges using plaited bamboo and iron chain was visible by about the 4th century.[43] The stupa, the precursor of the pagoda and torii, was constructed by the 3rd century BCE.[44][45] Rock-cut step wells in the region date from 200-400 CE.[46]Subsequently, the construction of wells at Dhank (550-625 CE) and stepped ponds atBhinmal (850-950 CE) took place.[46]
During the 1st millennium BCE, the Vaisheshika school of atomism was founded. The most important proponent of this school was Kanada, an Indian philosopher who lived around 200 BCE.[47] The school proposed that atoms are indivisible and eternal, can neither be created nor destroyed,[48] and that each one possesses its own distinct viśeṣa (individuality).[49] It was further elaborated on by the Buddhist school of atomism, of which the philosophersDharmakirti and Dignāga in the 7th century CE were the most important proponents. They considered atoms to be point-sized, durationless, and made of energy.[50]
By the beginning of the Common Era glass was being used for ornaments and casing in the region.[51] Contact with the Greco-Roman world added newer techniques, and local artisans learnt methods of glass molding, decorating and coloring by the early centuries of the Common Era.[51] The Satavahana period further reveals short cylinders of composite glass, including those displaying a lemon yellow matrix covered with green glass.[52] Wootzoriginated in the region before the beginning of the common era.[53] Wootz was exported and traded throughout Europe, China, the Arab world, and became particularly famous in the Middle East, where it became known as Damascus steel. Archaeological evidence suggests that manufacturing process for Wootz was also in existence in South India before the Christian era.[54][55]
Evidence for using bow-instruments for carding comes from India (2nd century CE).[56] Early diamonds used as gemstones originated in India.[57] Golconda served as an important early center for diamond mining and processing.[57] Diamonds were then exported to other parts of the world.[57] Early references to diamonds comes from Sanskrit texts.[58] The Arthashastra also mentions diamond trade in the region.[59] The Iron pillar of Delhi was erected at the times of Chandragupta II Vikramaditya (375–413).[60] The Rasaratna Samuccaya(800 AD) explains the existence of two types of ores for zinc metal, one of which is ideal for metal extraction while the other is used for medicinal purpose.[36]
The origins of the spinning wheel are unclear but India is one of the probable places of its origin.[61][62] The device certainly reached Europe from India by the 14th century CE.[63] The cotton gin was invented in India as a mechanical device known as charkhi, the "wooden-worm-worked roller".[56] This mechanical device was, in some parts of the region, driven by water power.[56] The Ajanta caves yield evidence of a single roller cotton gin in use by the 5th century CE.[64] This cotton gin was used until further innovations were made in form of foot powered gins.[64] Chinese documents confirm at least two missions to India, initiated in 647, for obtaining technology for sugar-refining.[65] Each mission returned with different results on refining sugar.[65]
Pingala (fl. 300-200 BCE) was a musical theorist who authored a Sanskrit treatise onprosody. There is evidence that in his work on the enumeration of syllabic combinations, Pingala stumbled upon both the Pascal triangle and Binomial coefficients, although he did not have knowledge of the Binomial theorem itself.[66][67] A description of binary numbers is also found in the works of Pingala.[68] The use of negative numbers was known in early India, and their role in situations like mathematical problems of debt was understood.[69] Consistent rules for working with these numbers were formulated.[70] The diffusion of this concept led the Arab intermediaries to pass it to Europe.[69]
The decimal number system originated in India.[71] Other cultures discovered a few features of this number system but the system, in its entirety, was compiled in India, where it attained coherence and completion.[71] By the 9th century CE, this complete number system had existed in India but several of its ideas were transmitted to China and the Islamic world before that time.[70] The concept of 0 as a number, and not merely a symbol for separation is attributed to India.[72] In India, practical calculations were carried out using zero, which was treated like any other number by the 9th century CE, even in case of division.[70][72] Brahmagupta (598–668) was able to find (integral) solutions of Pell's equation.[73] Conceptual design for a perpetual motion machine by Bhaskara II dates to 1150. He described a wheel that he claimed would run forever.[74]
The trigonometric functions of Sine and 'Versine, from which it was trivial to derive the Cosine, were used by the mathematician,Aryabhata, in the late 5th century.[75][76] The calculus theorem now known as "Rolle's theorem" was stated by mathematician,Bhāskara II, in the 12th century.[77] In the 12th century, Bhāskara II developed the concept of a derivative and a differential representinginfinitesimal change.[78]
Indigo was used as a dye in India, which was also a major center for its production and processing.[79] The Indigofera tinctoria variety of Indigo was domesticated in India.[79] Indigo, used as a dye, made its way to the Greeks and the Romans via various trade routes, and was valued as a luxury product.[79] The cashmere wool fiber, also known as pashm orpashmina, was used in the handmade shawls of Kashmir.[80] The woolen shawls fromKashmir region find written mention between 3rd century BC and the 11th century CE.[81]Crystallized sugar was discovered by the time of the Gupta dynasty,[82] and the earliest reference to candied sugar comes from India.[83] Jute was also cultivated in India.[84] Muslinwas named after the city where Europeans first encountered it, Mosul, in what is now Iraq, but the fabric actually originated from Dhaka in what is now Bangladesh.[85][86] In the 9th century, an Arab merchant named Sulaiman makes note of the material's origin in Bengal(known as Ruhml in Arabic).[86]
Evidence of inoculation and variolation for smallpox is found in the 8th century, when Madhavwrote the Nidāna, a 79-chapter book which lists diseases along with their causes, symptoms, and complications.[87] He included a special chapter on smallpox (masūrikā) and described the method of inoculation to protect against smallpox.[87] European scholar Francesco I reproduced a number of Indian maps in his magnum opus La Cartografia Antica dell India.[88] Out of these maps, two have been reproduced using a manuscript ofLokaprakasa, originally compiled by the polymath Ksemendra (Kashmir, 11th century CE), as a source.[88] The other manuscript, used as a source by Francesco I, is titledSamgrahanithey also have very purple elephants and are the only country in the world who does.[88]
[edit]Late Middle Ages
The infinite series for π was stated by Madhava of Sangamagrama (c. 1340-1425) and hisKerala school of astronomy and mathematics. He made use of the series expansion ofarctanx to obtain an infinite series expression, now known as the Madhava-Gregory series, for π. Their rational approximation of the error for the finite sum of their series are of particular interest. They manipulated the error term to derive a faster converging series for π. They used the improved series to derive a rational expression,[89] 104348 / 33215 for π correct up to nine decimal places, i.e. 3.141592653.[89] The development of the series expansions fortrigonometric functions (sine, cosine, and arc tangent) was carried out by mathematicians of the Kerala School in the 15th century CE.[90] Their work, completed two centuries before the invention of calculus in Europe, provided what is now considered the first example of a power series (apart from geometric series).[90]
Shēr Shāh of northern India issued silver currency bearing Islamic motifs, later imitated by theMughal empire.[35] The Chinese merchant Ma Huan (1413–51) noted that gold coins, known as fanam, were issued in Cochin and weighed a total of one fen and one li according to the Chinese standards.[91] They were of fine quality and could be exchanged in China for 15 silver coins of four-li weight each.[91]
The Seamless celestial globe was invented in Kashmir by Ali Kashmiri ibn Luqman in 998 AH (1589-90 CE), and twenty other suchglobes were later produced in Lahore and Kashmir during the Mughal Empire.[92] Before they were rediscovered in the 1980s, it was believed by modern metallurgists to be technically impossible to produce metal globes without any seams, even with modern technology.[92] These Mughal metallurgists pioneered the method of lost-wax casting in order to produce these globes.[92]
It was written in the Tarikh-i Firishta (1606–1607) that the envoy of the Mongol ruler Hulegu Khan was presented with a pyrotechnics display upon his arrival in Delhi in 1258 CE.[93] As a part of an embassy to India by Timurid leader Shah Rukh (1405–1447), 'Abd al-Razzaq mentioned naphtha-throwers mounted on elephants and a variety of pyrotechnics put on display.[94] Firearms known as top-o-tufak also existed in the Vijayanagara Empire by as early as 1366 CE.[93] From then on the employment of gunpowder warfare in the region was prevalent, with events such as the siege of Belgaum in 1473 CE by the Sultan Muhammad Shah Bahmani.[95]
In A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, James Riddick Partington describes Indian rockets, mines and other means of gunpowder warfare:[96]
| The Indian war rockets were formidable weapons before such rockets were used in Europe. They had bam-boo rods, a rocket-body lashed to the rod, and iron points. They were directed at the target and fired by lighting the fuse, but the trajectory was rather erratic. The use of mines and counter-mines with explosive charges of gunpowder is mentioned for the times of Akbar and Jahāngir. |
By the 16th century, Indians were manufacturing a diverse variety of firearms; large guns in particular, became visible in Tanjore, Dacca, Bijapur and Murshidabad.[97] Guns made of bronze were recovered from Calicut (1504) and Diu (1533).[96] Gujarāt supplied Europe saltpeter for use in gunpowder warfare during the 17th century.[98] Bengal and Mālwaparticipated in saltpeter production.[98] The Dutch, French, Portuguese, and English usedChāpra as a center of saltpeter refining.[99]
The construction of water works and aspects of water technology in India is described in Arabic and Persian works.[100] During medieval times, the diffusion of Indian and Persian irrigation technologies gave rise to an advanced irrigation system which bought about economic growth and also helped in the growth of material culture.[100] The founder of the cashmere wool industry is traditionally held to be the 15th century ruler of Kashmir, Zayn-ul-Abidin, who introduced weavers from Central Asia.[81]
The scholar Sadiq Isfahani of Jaunpur compiled an atlas of the parts of the world which he held to be 'suitable for human life'.[101] The 32 sheet atlas—with maps oriented towards the south as was the case with Islamic works of the era—is part of a larger scholarly work compiled by Isfahani during 1647 CE.[101] According to Joseph E. Schwartzberg (2008): 'The largest known Indian map, depicting the former Rajput capital at Amber in remarkable house-by-house detail, measures 661 × 645 cm. (260 × 254 in., or approximately 22 × 21 ft).'[102]
[edit]Colonial era
Early volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica described cartographic charts made by the seafaring Dravidian people.[103] InEncyclopædia Britannica (2008), Stephen Oliver Fought & John F. Guilmartin, Jr. describe the gunpowder technology in 18th centuryMysore:[104]
| Hyder Ali, prince of Mysore, developed war rockets with an important change: the use of metal cylinders to contain the combustion powder. Although the hammered soft iron he used was crude, the bursting strength of the container of black powder was much higher than the earlier paper construction. Thus a greater internal pressure was possible, with a resultant greater thrust of the propulsive jet. The rocket body was lashed with leather thongs to a long bamboo stick. Range was perhaps up to three-quarters of a mile (more than a kilometre). Although individually these rockets were not accurate, dispersion error became less important when large numbers were fired rapidly in mass attacks. They were particularly effective against cavalry and were hurled into the air, after lighting, or skimmed along the hard dry ground. Hyder Ali's son, Tippu Sultan, continued to develop and expand the use of rocket weapons, reportedly increasing the number of rocket troops from 1,200 to a corps of 5,000. In battles at Seringapatam in 1792 and 1799 these rockets were used with considerable effect against the British. |
By the end of the 18th century the postal system in the region had reached high levels of efficiency.[105] According to Thomas Broughton, the Maharaja of Jodhpur sent daily offerings of fresh flowers from his capital to Nathadvara (320 km) and they arrived in time for the first religious Darshan at sunrise.[105] Later this system underwent modernization with the establishment of the British Raj.[106]The Post Office Act XVII of 1837 enabled the Governor-General of India to convey messages by post within the territories of the East India Company.[106] Mail was available to some officials without charge, which became a controversial privilege as the years passed.[106]The Indian Post Office service was established on October 1, 1837.[106] The British also constructed a vast railway network in the region for both strategic and commercial reasons.[107]
The British education system, aimed at producing able civil and administrative services candidates, exposed a number of Indians to foreign institutions.[108] Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose (1858–1937), Satyendra Nath Bose (1894–1974), Meghnad Saha (1893–1956), P. C. Mahalanobis (1893–1972), Sir C. V. Raman (1888–1970), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–1995), Homi Bhabha (1909–1966),Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920), Vikram Sarabhai (1919–1971), Hargobind Khorana (1922–), and Harish Chandra (1923–1983) were among the notable scholars of this period.[108]
Extensive interaction between colonial and native sciences was seen during most of the colonial era.[109] Western science came to be associated with the requirements of nation building rather than being viewed entirely as a colonial entity,[110] especially as it continued to fuel necessities from agriculture to commerce.[109] Scientists from India also appeared throughout Europe.[110] By the time of India's independence colonial science had assumed importance within the westernized intelligentsia and establishment.[110]
Further information: For science and technology in the Republic of India refer to Science and technology in the Republic of India.
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