Introduction to Ancient Indian Technology

Professor D. P. Mishra
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology
Module 1
Lecture No 05

Let us start this lecture 5 with a thought process from great scientist Albert Einstein. I like him
very much because he talks something which touches my heart. The concern for man and his
destiny must always be the chief interest of all technical effort. That we are not doing today. We
are doing technology or the other items for the market. Never forget it among your diagrams and
equations.

We use lot of diagrams, equations but what for those things? Those are for the human
welfare. That is a very important point I must tell you to you people. So let us recall that what we
learnt. And we learnt a lot from the Chanakya, the great teacher that India has produced so far.
This great teacher says, naven anvam shodhyet, that means we will have to do research and
relook at the old stuff and use it modern time. Then we look at chronological account of history
of Indian science and technology from whatever little amount of scriptures we could manage to
keep in spite of number of invasions and thousand years of being subjugated by the foreign
powers. Still we find plethora of information and knowledge, our ancestors were having.

(Refer Slide Time: 2:11)

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But I will now just to complete that discussion on chronological account of history of Indian
science and technology initiated in last lecture. During period between 900 to 1200 CE, several
texts namely Ganitasarasamgraha of Mahavira, Rasahridaya of Govinda Bhatta,
Krishiparasara Parashara and also the Vrksayurveda of Surapala might have written and
propagated. The Krishiparasara is about agriculture while Vrksayurveda is about how to take
care of plants and other trees. These are some of the scriptures what we were having. During this
period, there is a manual of agriculture that people had used for agriculture and botany. Of
course there was use of mineral medicines and encyclopedic. And there is a lot of knowledge
that have come into pictures like a summation of series, and Sridhara method of solving
quadratic equation. I mean the quadratic equation we know the how to solve various problems.
We use it in schools and colleges, but there is various ways given by Sridhara. And you might be
aware about the iron pillar at Dhar. A lot of alchemical ideas were being used at that time. And
we were having iron-casting, paper making, and several other knowledge. There was a book of
Manasollasa of Somadeva. During 1300 to 1500 CE, Sarangadhara Samhita, one book on
ayurveda was appeared which was considered as Indian materia medica which included
knowledge of plants, methods for storage and shelf life of materials. They were undertaking also
the urine and pulse examination of the patient. It is not that today we are only doing the
examination for diagnosis of diseseases, they did that in earlier days. The New dimension to
astronomical and mathematical work was initiated during this period. Lot of chemistry books
namely Rasaratnakar, Rasasamuchaya were written during this time what I will be trying to
discuss them latter on. And there is a pyrotechnic method which came up and we are having
evidence for it. Beside this, we are having Kerala School of mathematics. And as I told earlier
from Kerala it went to the western countries, and they started looking at seriously. The complex
chemical processes as we are telling pyrotechnics and others also came up at that time what
historian have admitted. During 1600 and 1700 CE, of course there is a lot of factories being
established by the Mogul and the British rules. Basically cottage industry was prevailed in
earlier days. But during this period, the big industries in medium level came up. Then our
environment also got destroyed in the process along with cottage industries of village. Of course
the gun and gun powders came into pictures like we were having lot of cannons. The
astronomical ideas, crafts, agriculture, perfumery were prevailed during this time; perfumes were
being used by the Mogul and other Muslim rulers and we are having it. Perfumes were also

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earlier there but they were using in small scale. Even till 1800 CE, knowledge generation was
going on in spite of invasion and destruction of ancient society and systems. Unfortunately,
between 1800 to 2000 CE, several technologies have imported from the outside countries at the
cost of indigenous technologies. So our own people became jobless. In spite of apathy for
keepers of traditional technologies by successive government, if you will go to the rural areas
and you go to even Kanpur city, you will find, some of them like
potters/blacksmiths/carpenters are still surviving and have not left their profession. You will be
finding some blacksmiths and then they are doing a wonderful work in spite of all indifferences
of society towards them. According to me, India having a populous country, should not go for
the mass producing using the machines such that our people will be jobless. We should go for
the cottage industry so that more employment can be generated and also the creativity can be
nurtured and developed further.

Let me tell you what I think. I think is that this is the Patent Raj is killing the creativity
and also the market forces are taking all the benefits from the patents. On the other hand, people
should have knowledge not the market forces. Earlier days, our country always believed that
people should have knowledge namely scientific knowledge, technological knowledge, social
knowledge and spiritual knowledge. They can involve in creative work and enjoy the life. So we
need to revive the process of leading a creative and productive life. I must urge all of you not run
after the jobs, create the jobs for others and develop a eco-friendly technologies so that more
people can be employed and more people can be creative and enjoy their life. Therefore we need
to look at this ancient science and technology what can give us the ways to revive and rejuvenate
our mother land.

(Refer Slide Time: 7:43)

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And let us now look at chronological development of science and technology. What I am now
trying to tell you like little more details about that. And we will go back to the Harrapan
civilization. The geographical setting if you look at, it is the north side the Himalayan regions. If
you look at, however the Himalayan region is not shown here.

The eastern part is basically passable low hill where Harappan culture was prevailing. This is
What you call iis Kabul and this is your Indus River. And this is Jhelum River and the Chenab,
Ravi and Sutlej rivers, all are joining to form a big river. In earlier days this was known as
Sarasvati river . And this spot is your Mohenjo-daro and Mehrgarh is the place here which is the
one of the Harappan sites. The Kalibangan region also is one of the Harappa’s sites. And the
Lothal is also one of the Harappan sites. These regions are basically known as Harappan region
what people have accepted. Note that on the west side is your Arabian Sea and on the northwest
side, basically you will be having the passable Hindu Kush mountain and Khyber Pass. Of
course, on north side is the Plain of Indus. This is Ganges River; this is your Yamuna. And these
are the Gangetic Plain regions. And this is of course, your Deccan region on southern side and
is extremely dry. As I told you earlier, there is the Eastern Ghats here in this region and this is
the Western Ghats separated from the north by rivers, low mountains. If you look at, that is very
important because this sea controls your monsoon wind and so also the Himalayan. These are the
important natural entities what govern the climate and season cycle. And we are destroying these
Eastern and Western Ghats and other mountains as well. We are spoiling them in the name of

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development. And we do not know what we are doing. So how to overcome these problems
because people want to have a buildings or the rooms which are made out of concrete. Now
from where they will get gravels? If you look at we have 130 crore people; if everybody will
having a house which is made of concrete, then where will be our mountains? Note that life of a
concrete house is 50-100 years. Then after that, what will we be using? After the mountains got
destroyed then where we will go? So the mountains are to be protected. How to go about it? Is
there any technology we can have a good pakka houses, right? Not out of mud. How to do that?
Can you get any technology from the ancient time? I will show you that later on that we can do it
without resorting to concrete. During October to April is the dry season generally in North India.
But nowadays, it is changing drastically. It becomes wet seasons right? During May to
September, there is a lot of rain which helps to cool the heated soil. But its pattern has been
changed awkwardly due to climate change. We should take care of our ecology.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:59)

So if you look at this map that this is the Khyber Pass and this is a Hindu Kush mountain range
as shown in the map. And this is your Harappan site and Indus river is located in this map. The
people always compare it with the Nile river. So this Indus Valley regions were having rich
deposits of soil from the Indus river. The wheat and barley were cultivated in the Indus Valley
what people are already found out proper agriculture method and they used to cultivate cotton
before 3000 BCE. The Harappa and Mohenjo-daro cities, located in this might have served as a

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twin capitals like the today we are having twin capitals in some places. Note that each city had a
fortified citadel. That means where the administrative people who should be also protected could
be residing in this region. A large granary was found in this region. That means lot of food stuff,
they would be storing in that period. I am just telling now the broad streets and market places,
temples and public buildings were prevailed in something 6000 BCE according to the new data
like whatever we are having in modern time. They were having standardized weights, measures
and metrology system which I will not be talking about it. They were having very good
architecture and they were using burned bricks as well. For domestic trades they were having
items like pottery, tools, metals, cottons, etc. They were also trading with Mesopotamians,
Greek and other prevailing civilization from something 2300 to 1750 BCE. If you look at it,
these are the products as shown in Figure. Even today we are also using this kind of flower vase
and other items. And these are basically weight, you can see one in this figure. These are of
course dolls and then various motifs were being used at that time. Of course, there are various
phases by which researchers have divided. They call it basically Ravi phase or Early Harappan
phase, Kot Diji phase. Kot Diji is not shown in this diagram; it is considered to be an unknown
place. And there are Harappa Phase A, Harappa Phase B, Harappa Phase C depending upon this
chronological years. And Harappa/Late Harappan Transitional phase are classified. The late
Harappan period is something from 1800 to 1300 BCE. Of course, these numbers also are
varying from different group of researchers to others.

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(Refer Slide Time: 15:23)

Let us look at the Indus Valley Civilizations. And as I told earlier, there were having a lot of
engineering components obtained during excavations of the archeological sites of this
civilization. They were following the decimal divisions of measurements for all practical
purposes that what we use today, including the measurement of mass. They were having the
Indus Valley utensils. You can see it which is so nice looking. The statute of dancing girl found
in Mohenjo-daro site is shown in figure. If you look at, this dancing girls is having bangles
which are being used by the Gujarati people even today. That means from that onwards we are
having the tradition. That means our culture is living. So there are several signatures of Indian
culture that you will get even today. You will have to look at it them with a probing eyes from
historical perspectives. Some of these ornament are also shown in this figure which indicate
that they were using lot of ornaments, these are the very fine and minute ornaments. How were
they making them? What are the technologies, they were having? Today if I want to make, I will
have to use sophisticated machine. Did they had sophisticated machines? How were they making
those items? We do not know it. But if you think of it, it is very difficult to perceive it. If I ask all
of you engineering people how to make these items, very few people could tell me. “How they
were making? What are the precision of fabrication?”

The red pottery shown in figure has very good motif and it is having good design. How were
these made? These could survive after being remained so many years under the soil. Note that

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these are all evidences which were obtained during excavation. Interestingly, if you look at a
paper published in journal ‘Nature’ which is a very prestigious journal, published in 2006, we
can learn how people were doing proto-dentistry in vivo. In a living person they were doing the
drilling on the human teeth at that time. Today we also do if you are old or your teeth has gone
bad; they were doing at that time. And that has been proved. And 11 drilled molar crowns from
the nine adults were discovered in the Neolithic graveyard in Mehrgarh. I had talked about
Mehrgarh where a city place was exist that dates back around 3,500 to 6,000 years ago. But
according to author, their discoveries pointed out to the tradition of proto-dentistry in the early
farming culture of that region. Because our culture if you look at it is based on the agriculture.
Agriculture is the culture of our country. The village is the soul of our country. We should keep
the village culture intact and so also the urban. It is not that only village will be there. We always
live in an urban and village kind of environments; both must be compatible and important for
our nation. Therefore we need to learn these things: how they were manufacturing such exotic
items? I am sure that they were not using that machine what we are using today. They were
using the cottage industry – by using the mind and hand and thus maintaining a balance
between mind and hand. So it is there in our blood. We just need to revive it.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:17)

I have already talked about various aspects of ancient Indian civilization and culture. I will not
talk more about it. But I will tell you one thing that the Harappan society was free from

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manmade destructions of nature. If you look at newspaper, lot of destruction of nature are being
carried out blatantly in the name of development powered by modern technology. Hence we are
not at peace. The society is not at peace because of blatant misuse, abuse of the technologies. So
there was no evidence of warfare and invasions during that time. Of course why it was
collapsed is a one question that might be arising in your mind. Maybe it is due to some kind of
climatic change or maybe they had used the technology at that time blatantly and spoiled their
environment and therefore it got extinct. There are several questions looming around us. We
people have to do research to find out why that civilization got extinct at that time till again new
phase got started later on around 500 BCE.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:16)

Now I will come to the Vedic era. So you must be knowing that Veda is divided into four types
namely Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, and Atharva Veda. So these are the texts that are
available even today. It is very difficult to read and understand by modern people like us as most
of us are trained in Sanskrit language, mother of all language due to current faulty education
system.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:29)

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If you want to read and understand it, you will have to learn Sanskrit grammar book known as
Ashtadhyayi. I am afraid that very few people are available in this country who can teach it
you properly. And we need to revive that; otherwise you cannot understand the Vedas. Note that
the basic text is four Vedas as I told earlier. Each Veda is having Samhita, Brahmanas,
Aranyaka and Upanishads. These are all various parts which need to be look at carefully. Of
course, I could not understand when I was trying to read Vedas but I will tell you that I like the
Upanishads which is very easier and simpler and very profound in nature. And one should study
Vedas of course with the help of able teacher. Besides these, there are 6 supplemental texts
known as Vedangas and 4 complimentary texts known Upavedas, which are still existing.
There might be several other scriptures. Main ancient knowledge system is basically 14
disciplines. The supplementary texts are related to Shiksha, Vykaran, Chandas, Nirkurkta Yotish
and Kalp. Shiksha means education and phonetics. Phonetics plays very important role for
education. Today we do not know much about phonetics. We do not know our own language
properly because it is phonetic based language which was being emphasized earlier days. Of
course, education what was imparted, I will not talk here, it will take at least 2-3 hours to talk
about it. The Vyakaran was very profound and very great as accepted across worldwide. We do
not take care of it by running after English language. The prosody is the Chandas basically.
How to learn it? It is an art. It also require a lot of mind to profess it . We do not do that today.

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The Nirukta is about the etymology like how these words have formed; Unfrotuantely we do
not know much about it. If I ask somebody, how this word has come up? Let us say ‘manav’,
manav kisko kahoge? Man what you call? “Oh, no, no. Manav is man.” It is not. You are having
some definition, it must be spelled out properly; It is having certain logic. It is a very beautiful,
but we do not know how to go about it. The Jyotisha is being looked down upon today because
of it misuse and considered as cock and bull stories in the eyes of modern intellectuals.

The Kalp relates to the rules of rituals – whatever the rituals, there should be some rules and it
was having certain reason. Today we do not know about rules of rituals. It has to be looked at
carefully and more research work has to be done on it.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:00)

The Upavedas, of course are divided into four parts. One is Ayurveda, most of you will be aware
about it because it is coming up again in a big way. And unfortunately, Ayurveda is being
practiced in the form of allopathy. People have not understood it tenets. They should use the
tenets of Ayurveda and then only practice in that way. I will not elaborate on that. Rather I will
just inform you that some of other branches of ancient knowledge are Dhanurvedas,
Gandharvavedas, and Arthavedas. The Shilpa Samhita is part of Arthaveda, (economy). I have
already talked about it in the first lecture itself.

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(Refer Slide Time: 23:50)

So what I will do, basically you can say Shilpa Samhita is basically related to te engineering or
technology treatise. It has been further classified into Dhatukhand, Sadhankhand and
Vastukhand. The Dhatukhand is related to Earth science. The Sadhankhand is basically about
transportations like sea transportation and road transportation. Of course, people are claiming
that there was air transportation as well but I do not know it. But at least, the naval ship and
boats were designed and developed in ancient India. The Vastukhand is related to Architecture.
The Vastushastra, is now being exploited to make a brisk business by fooling the people. The
Earth science is basically related the agriculture because agriculture was very part and part of our
civilization even till today, although we lost the way to western people. Now again the
agriculture is coming up with a new name of organic farming but it is modified version of our
ancient agriculture method. And we must not relearn it from the western people, rather from our
scriptures and improvise it if it is required at this moment. The Jalshastra is concerned with
water which is very important at this moment as we are facing the problems of water crisis. The
khanishastra is pertaining to the mining.

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(Refer Slide Time: 25:09)

The krishishastra is basically divided into three branches namely vrukshavidya (plantations)
pashuvidya (animal science), manushyavidya (human resources). The Jalshastra is about the
scriptures on water. The Sansechanvidya is the text about basically irrigation and sangranvidya,
is about the drainage of water. The stambhanvidya is concerned with storage of water because
water storing is very important and is a natural way, people had done in ancient. I will be talking
about it when we will discuss about water harvesting. And if you look at the khanishastra is
further classified into four parts namely pruthakaran, (separation of metal) that we do in modern
time and bhasmikaran vidya, (calcination), sankarvidya, (making of alloys) and dhrutividya
(gemology). You might be knowing most of the temples we are having certain metal items,
which were made of panchdhatu, ashtadhatu, navdhatu, etc. These are all nothing but metal
alloys.

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(Refer Slide Time: 26:26)

(Refer Slide Time: 27:04)

The Sadhankhand (transportation) is classified into three more categories namely

Naukashastra (water transport using ship/boats), Rathashastra (land transport) Agniyanshastra
(space transport). I do not know about hard evidence for space travel but at least I can say that
we are having evidence about the manufacturing of ship/boats in ancient time. Anyway we were
having enough knowledge about horse riding carts. But when I say I do not know, that does not

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mean we will not look at it. We will look at it with a mind to unravel and prove that it is right,
not by emotion, by evidence.

The Naukashastra consists of Tarividya (raft makings) nauvidya, (construction of boats)

naukavidya (construction of ships). Some of the scriptures that disucuss about this are
uktikalpataru, Arthashastra, etc. The Rathashastra of course, are mentioned in scriptures
namely Rathalakshanam, Shukraniti, Arthashastra, etc. These are the texts from where you will
get some information about these knowledge. The Rathashastra are related to Ashvavidya
(horse riding), Pathavidya (road construction) Ghantapathvidya (hill roads) Setuvidya, (bridge
construction). The agniyanshastra is mentioned in Yantra Sarvasva, Agastya Samhita,
Samarangana, Sutradhara, etc. The shakuntavidya (birds training) were prevailed in earlier
days to train the bird to give the information.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:08)

The Vasthukhand deals with the architecture which consist of building, fort making and town
planning: I will be talking about town planning and also about the rural areas how we can make
houses. Of course, I will not be touching upon fort making.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:31)

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And I think this veshmashastra is dealing with Vasovidya (tents), Kutividya (huts), Mandirvidya
(Houses) and Prasadvidya (palaces). I will be talking about how to make the huts what people
were using in ancient time. I will not be discussing about Prasadvidya (palace). The nagar-
rachna shastra, (town planning) consists of Aapanvidya (market), Rajgruhvidya (palace);
sarvajanvaas vidya (public place); vanopavan vidya (garden) and devalayavidya (temple). Note
that I will be talking about in town planning and the buildings. I will not be touching upon
temples, as it is a very vast subject. I will not talking about the durgavidya (forts) kutvidya
(castle) and aakarvidya (moats) and Yuddhavidya (warfare).

We have seen about the plethora of knowledge our ancestors were having but we will be
discussing some of them only. So you have seen the whole gamut of ancient science and
technology whatever they required for leading a very nice life. They were also leading a very
productive and balanced life. Some of the technologies can be adopted even today. And we will
be looking as we go along with this course. In the next lecture, I will be talking about how our
people were doing science and technology; what are the basic principles they were following.
That, we will be looking at them in the next lecture. Thank you very much.

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