Is jingoistic science discrediting the astounding achievements of ancient Indian knowledge?
by Jacob Koshy
When concluding a public lecture on Einstein at the Indian Science Congress in the first week of 2015, Abhay Ashtekar, an Indian-born theoretical physicist at Pennsylvania State University and among the founders of loop quantum gravity — an esoteric mathematical approach to better understand gravity's role in the universe — remarked, rather bleakly, that it was no longer possible for human beings to entirely grasp the complexity of the universe by thought alone. "Today, without sophisticated instruments, expensive space probes and gargantuan detectors, knowledge of the beginnings and evolution of the universe would have been impossible," he summarised to a resounding ovation.
However, the applause Ashtekar drew, after his hour-long recce of 100 years of cosmology, was several decibels lower than the plaudits from a 500-strong audience for Captain Anand Jayaram Bodas, who 24 hours earlier, on the same podium, expounded on a 200-foot plane that was powered by 40 engines with "flexible exhaust pipes made of fabric and animal skin". The aeroplane, the ex-pilot noted "was just one of many common in the Vedic Age". He sourced his information to texts and scriptures originally authored by Maharshi Bhardwaj, who "lived between 6,000 and 7,000 BC".
Bodas, who with his remarks made it to the front pages of most newspapers, didn't take questions such as how these planes were fuelled, what were the aerodynamic principles involved and refused an interview with this reporter saying "journalists had misrepresented his words by referring to his assertions as 'mythical'". In his presentation, he added that several techniques of making aircraft bodies with alloys were mentioned and of the 500 verses that made up the body of Bhardwaj's work, only 100 had survived. He nevertheless exhorted students to make aircraft bodies using techniques mentioned in the texts.
Had Bodas used a 15-year-old, easily available technology called Google, he would've come across a 1974 paper in the journal Scientific Opinion titled 'A Critical Study of the Work Vymanika Shastra', by HS Mukunda, SM Deshpande, HR Nagendra, A Prabhu and SP Govindaraju. The authors who are aerospace and mechanical engineers, and then at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, argued that Vymanika Shastra, one of the antiquarian books cited by Bodas that mentioned the various kinds of planes Bodas explicated, didn't seem older than 1922. Their research paper, analysing each of the various planes mentioned in the book, concludes that "...the descriptions of their making in the text do not seem to make much sense from the point of view of making them in actual practice..." and there is "no mention at all of the weights of different components. This is serious, as that is fundamental to the flying of heavier-than-air machines".
Calling Attention
While Bodas may have garnered the maximum attention at the fest — perhaps more than the several Nobel laureates, biologists, particle physicists and rivalled prime minister Modi's de rigueur extempore perorations — he is at the apex of a revisionist clamour that over the last few months has seen several ministers attribute plastic surgery, stem cells, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, algebra and Pythagoras theorem as having been developed by India and "given away" to the rest of the world. However, Science Congress' organisers say that it was unfortunate that one "publicity monger" had managed to hijack all the attention and eclipsed many more thought-provoking sessions on 'Make in India', 'Swachh Bharat Mission' and medical breakthroughs.
SB Nimse, president, Indian Science Congress Association, said that he had made a conscious effort to invigorate the century-old Science Congress by ensuring that leading, active researchers from all over the world congregate, exchange ideas and inspire young students to the possibilities of science. The proposal to include a session on scientific ideas in ancient Indian literature — the first such in the organisation's history — came from the Kavikulaguru Kalidas Sanskrit University, Nagpur and, while Nimse emphasised that he had no role in conceiving such a session, it appeared a good idea. "While they initially requested a day-long session, I insisted it be only a few hours and moreover it seemed worthwhile to have a discussion on scientific thought in our ancient texts," said Nimse. "There is considerable scholarship, for instance, on the conception of multiple infinities in old Jain literature and how even Fields medallist Manjul Bhargava's [one of the speakers at the Science Congress] prize-winning work was party influenced by his reading of [19th century] German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss in the original." Nimse emphasised that there was no request or pressure from the government to include such a session and that whether such as session would be included in future was "up to the future president".Sage Talk
Neither Nimse nor environment minister Prakash Javadekar, who was one of the speakers at the science and Sanskrit session, was present for the research papers that were presented and discussed. These included, apart from Bodas' presentation, talks on ancient Indian surgery, architecture and the neuroscience of yoga. Many of these works relied on a firmer historical base than Bodas' bibliography. For instance, Ashwin Sawant's work on the surgical tools and techniques in ancient India relied on the Sushruta Samhita, an important work of the Ayurveda canon, and yet the dominant argument that permeated most of the findings was that all valuable science was discovered in India and refined to immaculate perfection between roughly 2,000 BC and 500 AD. All such knowledge was known to 'sages' and over time this knowledge was "lost" or made "impure" as they began to be practised unscientifically by a larger pool of semi-trained practitioners and worse, impeded by the dominance of Buddhism, Jainism and later Islam.
Sawant, an Ayurveda physician and a PhD student, dressed in an immaculate grey suit, concluded with an exhortation that "...Sushruta is asking for credit to be known worldwide as the father of surgery". He argued that sophisticated techniques, such as corrective nose surgery, and the use of scalpels so sharp that they could "split hair", were lost because of the subsequent dominance of "certain religions". Also, he argued, "Buddhism's advocacy of non-violence gained such precedence that even the use of scalpels were considered to be violent and over time, surgery started to be practiced by 'lower classes' and they lost their refinement."Rahul Altekar, another speaker on the same forum, claimed that principles of architecture in the Vastu Shastra were so refined that "houses were prescribed to last for an average of 500 years". Only one of the papers, by Veena Londhe and Leena Phadke, presented experimental work that purported to show the superiority of yoga asanas when compared to popular aerobic exercises of the present day such as jogging. When Phadke stated that measurements by her associates, which included researchers from the University of Munich, of electrical activity in the brain in people performing the 'sirsasana,' or a headstand, was similar to that when we are supine or extremely calm, the audience again broke into raptures. She however didn't explain why such a headstand, then, was preferable to lying down if the resultant "brain activity" was the same and why this was healthier than deep breathing.
Future of the Past
"I am a Hindu, proud of it and yet there is an inviolable line between science and belief," said KS Saraswat, a professor at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany, Lucknow. He was part of a separate panel at the Science Congress, which presented work at a session called the 'Future of the Past', or on what were the latest archaeological techniques and discoveries being employed to understand India's early history.
In his presentation, he showed photos of lithographs and temple iconography from several Indian, Thai and Chinese temples to argue that fruits such as maize, cashew and the Brazilian pineapple — canonically believed to have been introduced to India and the East only after the European discovery of the Americas in the 16th century — were actually known to India and the East in the first millennium itself. Though this is a matter of academic dispute, Saraswat is disinterested in its implications. "This is not even my work and am relying on previous research in the US, but I'm not going to make the argument that maize was discovered in India or that Indians knew the Americas long ago," said Saraswat, "and that's because I don't have the evidence. It doesn't matter what I actually believe."
Res
earchers, who are exploring provocative ideas and challenging conventional West-backed histories, said that sessions such as the science and Sanskrit impede their work."The vimanwallahs do more harm than good because they assume any science done in the West is conspiratorial and biased toward India. Sure, there are sometimes problems with American and European interpretations, but they must be refuted in the language of science," said Mayank Vahia, a physicist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. With interests ranging from cosmic rays and ancient astronomy, Vahia was part of a group of Indian scientists that refuted a 2004 thesis from US scientists, that the Indus script — the language of the Harappan civilisation — may not be a language at all but a mere collection of symbols, a body blow to what is understood about that civilisation. The defence of Vahia and his colleagues published in 2009 in Science — a top academic journal — used evidence from computational linguistics, statistical principles used in the auto-complete feature of texting and thermodynamics.
Other scientists argue that jingoistic science discredits the genuinely astounding achievements of ancient Indian knowledge. "I've some, but not an exhaustive, background in the history of algebra and astronomy and there is no doubt that Aryabhata predated Europe in several aspects of trigonometry," said Ashtekar, "but planes and missiles are ludicrous. How is it then that half of India doesn't have electricity? Let's us not insult the great minds of our antiquity with stuff like this." Saraswat is however resigned to the idea that this clash between cultures and the use of science to establish utopian golden ages will never go away and is embedded deep into the human DNA. "As long as people are divided by countries and their own regional histories, these conflicts will continue. Only if humanity comes together to unearth our past can we really hope to understand the course of civilisations. That, I'm sure, is impossible."
The author is a science writer
No comments:
Post a Comment