SESSION: 2023-24

Department of Computer Science

Engineering

Essence of Indian Traditional Knowledge Semester/Section:

(ANC0602) CSE VIth (D)
Weekly Test-4 Solution (EVEN)

1. Explain the contribution of Brahmagupta, Baudhayana, Apastamba & Bhaskara II in

Mathematics.
Answer: Brahmagupta (7th century AD) in his book Brahmasputa Siddhanta mentioned Zero
as a number. In his book, he also introduced negative numbers and described them as debts and
positive numbers as fortunes & also mentioned Pythagorean triplet. It also contained first clear
description of Quadratic formula. His greatest contribution was the concept of cyclic
quadrilateral.
if ABCD has sides of lengths a, b, c, and d, and the semi perimeter is s = (a + b +c + d)/2, then
the area is given by:
Area ABCD = √[(s – a) (s –b) (s – c) (s – a)]

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He discovered the bhāvanā algorithm for integral solutions to second-order indeterminate
equations (called varga prakriti) of the type Nx 2 + 1 = y2. He was in many ways one of the
founders of modern algebra, and his works were translated into Persian and later Latin.
Baudhayana: The earliest book on mathematics was Shulbasutra written by Baudhayana around
6th century BC. There is a mention of formula for the square root of 2 and even some concepts
very similar to Pythagoras Theorem in the Shulbasutra. It also contains geometry related to fire
altar construction.
The Śulbasūtras deal with transformations of one geometrical figure into another with no change
in the figure’s area: for instance, a square into a rectangle and vice-versa, of a rectangle into an
isosceles trapezium, or a square into a circle and vice-versa (see next extract). Here, Baudhāyana
gives a method to geometrically construct a square having an area the sum or difference of the
areas of two given squares.

Apastamba, in the 2nd century BC, introduced the concepts of practical geometry involving
acute angles, obtuse angles and right angles. This knowledge of angles helped in the
constructions of fire altars in those times. The most notable contribution of Apastamba was that
he approximated square root of 2.

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Bhaskaracharya (Bhaskara-II): He was one of the leading mathematicians in the 12th century
AD. His book Siddhanta Shiromani is divided into four sections:
• Lilavati (dealing with Arithmetic)
• Bijganita (dealing with Algebra)
• Goladhyaya (about Spheres)
• Grahaganita (mathematics of Planets.)
He developed surds and law related to their operation in the field of Algebra.
A chakrawat method or the cyclic method to solve algebraic equations was introduced by him in
his book Lilavati.
2. Discuss the progress witnessed in India in the field of astronomy during ancient age.
Answer: The Beginnings of Indian Astronomy:
The first ‘astronomical’ objects, found in the Andamans, belong to the palaeolithic era, some
12,000 years ago; they are calendar sticks noting the waxing and waning (The apparent increase
(waxing) and decrease (waning) of the moon’s disc from new moon to full moon and back, in the
course of a lunar month) of the moon by incising daily notches on a wooden stick.
Patterns of rock art found in Kashmir, such as a double sun or concentric circles, have convinced
some scholars that they were depictions of a supernova and meteor showers respectively, perhaps
witnessed some 7,000 years ago.
Ring-stones found at Mohenjo-Daro, the largest city of the Indus civilization (2600-1900 BCE),
which exhibit rows of small drilled holes, have been interpreted as calendrical devices keeping
track of the sunrise at different times of the year.
A few thousand years ago, the Rig-Veda, the oldest of the four Vedas, spoke of a year of 360
days divided into twelve equal parts and used a five-year yuga (era), probably as a first attempt
to reconcile the lunar and solar years (by the addition of a month after those five years). It clearly
recorded a solar eclipse, although in a metaphorical language.

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A few centuries later, the Yajur-Veda considered a lunar year of 354 days and a solar year of 365
days, and divided the year into six ṛtus or seasons of two months each. The Yajur-Veda also gave
the first list of 27 nakṣatras or lunar mansions, that is, constellations along the path of the moon
on the celestial sphere.
The Early Historical Period:
The second period extended from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE and was marked by
astronomical computations based on the risings and settings of planets, their revolutions, etc. Jain
astronomy also developed in this period, based on a peculiar model of two sets of 27 nakṣatras,
two suns and two moons; it nevertheless resulted in precise calendrical calculations.
The Siddhāntic Era:
Beginning in the 5th century CE, this is the Siddhāntic era, when texts called siddhāntas were
composed — a Sanskrit word meaning ‘principle’ or ‘conclusion’, but which applies here to a
collection of conclusions or a treatise.
Āryabhaṭa I (born 476 CE), working near what is today Patna, ushered in this era with his
Āryabhaṭīya, which dealt concisely but systematically with developments in mathematics and
astronomy. Among other things, it discussed units of time and features of the celestial sphere,
described the earth as a rotating sphere hanging in space, and produced a table of the planets’
mean positions. Āryabhaṭa also gave a correct explanation for both lunar and solar eclipses, and
stated that the diameter of the earth is 1,050 yojanas (defining the yojana as 8,000 average
human heights or about 13.6 km); this is close to the actual dimension, though 12% too large.
(His diameters for the planets and the sun are however much too small.)
Varāhamihira extensively discussed the revolutions of planets, eclipses, and the zodiac, often
with an astrological background.
Bhāskara I (b. 600 CE), the earliest known exponent of Āryabhaṭa I, provided a very useful
elucidation of Āryabhaṭa’s astronomy, besides improved calculation methods.

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The Brahmasphuta Siddhanta dealt with a variety of astronomical instruments, most of which
could be easily made by any good craftsman: among them, a water clock (ghați yantra)
consisting of a bowl with a small hole at the bottom, which would sink in exactly 24 minutes (a
ghati) if placed over water, a gnomon (a short stick kept vertically for the study of the motion of
its shadow); a graduated disk or half-disk; and a scissor-like pair acting as a compass. Those
instruments and the computational techniques applied to them were both adopted by later
scholars, beginning by Lalla of the 8th century.
Brahmagupta also authored a manual of astronomical calculations which remained popular for
centuries, as testified by Al-Biruni, the Persian savant who came to India in I the 11th century as
part of Mahmud of Ghazni's entourage. Al-Biruni was deeply interested in Indian astronomical
techniques, wrote about them at length, and translated texts by Varāhamihira and Brahmagupta
into Arabic or Persian.
Bhāskara II (b. 1114), better known as Bhāskarāchārya, brought important innovations to both
astronomical and mathematical techniques, discussing in particular the mean and true positions
of planets, the triple problem of time, direction and place, the risings and settings and
conjunctions of the planets, eccentric and epicyclic theories for their motions of planets, and a
large number of astronomical instruments. Over all, Bhāskarāchārya greatly improved upon the
formulas and methods adopted by earlier Indian astronomers.
The Kerala School:
Parameśvara (c. 1362-1455), an author of some thirty works, was one of the foremost
astronomers of this School, and the founder of the dṛk system, which improved computations of
eclipses and the positions of the planets and proved to be very popular. He emphasized the need
to regularly correct formulas to bring them closer to actual observations, and was said to have
studied eclipses and their parameters over a period of 55 years. He was followed by Nīlakaṇṭha
Somayājī (1444-1545), who, in his landmark Tantrasaṅgraha, carried out a major revision of the
older Indian planetary model for the inferior planets, Budha (Mercury) and Śukra (Venus), and

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described them, along with Maṅgala or Kuja (Mars), Bṛhaspati or Guru (Jupiter) and Śani
(Saturn), as moving in eccentric orbits around the sun. This achievement of the Kerala school of
astronomy is truly remarkable in the light of the fact that Nīlakaṇṭha preceded Copernicus
(14731543), the propounder of the heliocentric theory in Europe. It seems unlikely, however,
that Indian heliocentrism directly influenced European advances in the field.

Other Post-Siddhāntic Developments: The famous and massive yantramantra or Jantar Mantar
observatories built in the early 18th century by the Maharaja of Jaipur, Sawai Jai Singh (1688-
1743), represent a convergence between Indian, Arabic and European astronomy.
In a general way, Indian astronomers were more interested in efficient methods of computation
than in theoretical models. Some of the techniques used to calculate planetary positions and
eclipses yielded remarkably precise results and impressed by their speed European astronomers
such as Le Gentil, a French savant who stayed in Puducherry for two years to observe a solar
transit of Venus in June 1769.

3. Discuss the development of chemistry in India.

Answer: Chemistry, as we understand it today, is a relatively young discipline; it took shape in
18th-century Europe, after a few centuries of alchemical tradition, which was partly borrowed
from the Arabs. (Alchemy was a semi-esoteric practice whose ultimate goal was to turn base
metals into gold and discover an ‘elixir of life’ that would grant immortality.) Other cultures —
especially the Chinese and the Indian — had alchemical traditions of their own, which included
much knowledge of chemical processes and techniques.
Early Chemical Techniques:
In India, we can trace such techniques all the way to the Indus civilization (3rd millennium BCE)
and its antecedents. Pottery called for a control of processes such as heating, fusion and

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evaporation. Bead-making involved complex treatments of minerals, including bleaching a bead
with a solution of calcium carbonate, then heating it in a kiln, so as to leave permanent white
designs on it.
Harappans also experimented with various mortars and cements made of burnt limestone and
gypsum, among other components. Finely crushed quartz, once fired, produced faience, a
synthetic material; it was then coated with silica (perhaps fused with soda) to which copper oxide
was added to give it a shiny turquoise glaze. Faience was then shaped into various ornaments or
figurines. The addition of iron oxide gave a greenish blue tint to glazed pottery, while manganese
oxide resulted in a maroon colour.
Pigments were another area for skilled chemical practices, and were required for painting
(witness the famous Ajanta murals) as well as dyeing of cotton and other textiles. Interestingly,
sources of pigments were not limited to organic materials (such as extracts of specific flowers or
fruits) but included mineral sources, from carbon (lamp black) to arsenic sulphide (yellow ochre)
or copper acetate (verdigris, greenish-blue in colour).
Atomism in Vaiśeṣika:
Atomism, or the concept that matter is ultimately made of indivisible building blocks, appeared
in India a few centuries BCE as part of philosophical speculations, in particular in the Vaiśeṣika,
one of the six philosophical systems of ancient India.
In this system, all substance was seen as an aggregated form of smaller units called atoms (aṇu or
paramāṇu), which were eternal, indestructible, spherical, supra-sensible and in motion at the
primordial state; they could form pairs or triplets, among other combinations, and unseen forces
caused interactions between them. The Vaiśeṣika system identified nine types of substance
(dravya): (1 to 5) the five elements (earth or prithvi, water or ap, fire or tejas, wind or vāyu, ether
or ākāśa), (6) time (kāla), (7) space or direction (dik), (8) the mind (manas), and (9) the spirit or
knower (ātman). Besides, substance had twenty-four different qualities (guṇas), including
fluidity, viscosity, elasticity and gravity. While fluidity was related to water, earth and fire,

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viscosity was unique to water, and gravity to earth. Distinctive characteristics of sound, heat and
light were also discussed, which often came close to later discoveries of physics, although,
lacking a mathematical apparatus, they did not evolve into scientific theories.
Chemistry in Early Literature:
Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra has much data on prevailing chemical practices, in particular a long
section on mines and minerals (including metal ores of gold, silver, copper, lead, tin and iron). It
also discusses the various characteristics of precious stones (pearl, ruby, beryl, etc.), details of
fermented juices (from sugarcane, jaggery, honey, jambu, jackfruit, mango, etc.), and oil
extraction.
The fundamental two texts of Ayurveda are the Caraka Saṃhitā and the Suśruta Saṃhitā,
both dated a few centuries CE: Not only do they turn to a wide range of chemicals for medical
use — metals, minerals, salts, juices — but they also discuss the preparation of various alkalis
(kṣāra), which is regarded as one of the ‘ten arts’ (kalā). Alkalis are described as mild, caustic or
average and are prepared from specific plants: after the plants have been burnt together with
some limestone, their ashes are then stirred in water, filtered, and the resulting solution is
concentrated by boiling, to which burnt limestone and conch shells are added. Such alkalis were
used to treat surgical instruments as well as thin sheets of metals like iron, gold or silver intended
for the preparation of drugs. These texts also speak of organic acids extracted from plants such as
citrus or tamarind.
Varāhamihira’s Bṛhat Saṃhitā, an encyclopaedia of sorts composed in the 6th century CE, has a
chapter on the preparation of numerous perfumes out of sixteen fundamental substances mixed in
different proportions. The Bṛhat Saṃhitā also includes various recipes, for instance for the
preparation of a glutinous material to be applied on the roofs and walls of houses and temples; it
was prepared entirely from extracts from various plants, fruits, seeds and barks which, after
being boiled and concentrated, were then treated with various resins. It would be interesting to
test and scientifically assess such recipes.

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The Classical Age:
Alchemy in India emerged around the mid-first millennium CE, during the Gupta empire. Its
origins remain hard to trace, and scholars have proposed that it received inputs from China,
where the discipline is well attested as early as in the 2nd century CE. Whatever its beginnings,
Indian alchemy soon took a stamp of its own.
There is a vast alchemical literature, authored by savants such as Nāgārjuna, Govinda Bhāgavat,
Vāgbhata, Somadeva, Yaśodhara, among many others. The rasaśāstra texts discuss many
chemical substances and their interactions. They were categorized as follows (with some
variations):

 Mahārasas or eight major substances: mica, tourmaline, copper pyrite, iron pyrite,
bitumen, copper sulphate, zinc carbonate, and mercury (sometimes lapis lazuli and
magnetite or lodestone are included);
 Uparasas or eight minor substances: Sulphur, red ochre, iron sulphate, alum, orpiment
(arsenic trisulphide), realgar (arsenic sulphide), collyrium (compounds of antimony), and
tintstone or cassiterite (tin dioxide).
 Navaratnas or nine gems, including pearl, topaz, emerald, ruby, sapphire and diamond;
 Dhātus or seven metals: gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, zinc; a few alloys (such as
brass, bronze and combinations of five metals) were also included;
 Poisons (viṣa or garala) and plants; among the latter, over 200 are named in the texts
(their identification is not always certain); plants were required, in particular, to treat or
‘digest’ metals and minerals.

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Transmuting base metals, such as lead, tin or copper, into gold was another pursuit of alchemy,
and involved five operations: smearing, throwing, pouring, fumigating and impact.

4. Describe different Harappan Technologies.

Answer: Harappan Technologies
One mainstay of the Indus or Harappan civilization (2600-1900 BCE for its urban or "Mature"
phase) was agriculture. Along with it, ceramic technology developed and produced fine fired
bricks as well as pots, which are required to carry water, store seeds and grain, and of course to
cook food.
Harappans produced wheel-turned pots in various shapes and sizes, some of them glazed or
painted. Their pottery was generally covered with a red slip (produced from red ochre, that is,
iron oxide), while floral, animal or geometric designs were painted in black. The black pigment
was the result of mixing iron oxide with black manganese.
Harappan fired bricks had proportions of 1 x 2 x 4 (width equals two heights; length equals two
widths) and, besides.
Harappan cities generally followed a grid plan and boasted a sanitation system that collected
used waters from individual bathrooms into municipal drains; those were regularly inspected and
cleaned, which testifies to a high level of civic order.
Harappan craftsmen took bead-making to a different level and perfected techniques of polishing,
colouring, glazing, drilling and bleaching. Their favourite semiprecious stones were carnelian,
agate and jasper, but they occasionally made beads out of bone, terracotta or synthetic faience.
India’s love for bangles is traceable to the Harappans’ manufacture of large numbers of gold,
bronze, conch-shell, glazed faience or humble terracotta bangles. Weavers used wheel-spun

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thread and, besides widely used cotton, evidence of silk has recently come to light at two sites.
Other crafts included stone and ivory carving, carpet making and inlaid woodwork.

The Harappan Civilization cities were well-planned and beautifully constructed, with baked
bricks used to build houses and buildings in rows on both sides of the road. Some places were
also built on the streets. Their facilities also had two-roomed houses. Some houses had private
bathrooms with pottery in the walls, providing water drainage. Sometimes, there was a provision
for a crib to sit in the toilet.

In the Indus Valley Civilization, the drainage system was in very systematic order; the drainage
system was used for the best convenience in every household. The location of water drainage
from each house was made of bricks. The architecture of well-planned urban centers based on
fixed-layout patterns with scientific roads, Drainage systems (with the use of corbelled
technology), and public structures (such as granaries and great bathwater far ahead of time and
precursors to the modern concept of architecture and civil engineering. The Harappan
Civilization also built the world’s first tide port at the head of the Gulf of Cambay in Lothal,
Gujarat, proving their high level of knowledge about the water flow and flow of tides.

The people of the Indus Valley civilization were technically very developed and had a good
knowledge of metallurgy; they also used standardized burnt bricks, precision weights, and
cotton. Many subdivisions also had a standardized system of weights and measurements with
calibration. According to the evidence in the excavations, they used gold, silver, copper, lapis
lazuli, turquoise, amethyst, alabaster, jade, etc.

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The people of Harappa developed some new metallurgy techniques and produced copper,
bronze, lead, and tin. In addition, a stone touching gold streaks was found at Banawali, which
may have been used to test the purity of gold, a technique still used in parts of India today.

Weight, Measurement, and Mathematics

The people of the Indus civilization had achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and
time. They were among the first to develop a system of equal weights and measures. A
comparison of the available items indicates large-scale variation in the Indus regions. Their most
minor division, marked on an ivory scale found in Lothal, Gujarat, was about 1.704 mm, the
smallest partition recorded on the Bronze Age scale. Harappan engineers followed the decimal
measurements division for all practical purposes, including measuring mass by their hexahedron
weights.
Medical Science
Harappans were familiar with medical science and used various herbs and medicines to treat
diseases. For example, the people of the Indus Valley Civilization practiced Trephination, a
medical intervention in which a hole is made in the skull to treat skull and brain disorders.
Evidence of Traction (a set of mechanisms for straightening broken bones or relieving pressure
on the spine and skeletal system) has also been found at Lothal, Kalibangan, and Burjholm but
not at Harappa or most other sites.

5. Discuss the development of Textile and Writing Technology in India.

Answer:
Textile:

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The Vedas refer to various types of garments as well as fabrics such as wool or silk, also to
weaving and looms. Later on, cotton appears and we get some information on weaving skills
from Buddhist literature: for instance, when Āmrapāli, a courtesan from the kingdom of Vaiśalī,
goes to meet Gautama Buddha, she is said to have worn a richly woven semi-transparent sari.
The Ajanta paintings among others, are also a rich source of information on clothes worn some
2,000 years ago and on the techniques of weaving, including different dyes, which have been
related to vegetal as well as mineral pigments.
By the time trade with the Roman Empire reached its peak, India was a major exporter of
textiles, specially cotton and silk.
Some of India’s specialties in the field have been the following:

 Muslin: this thin, loosely woven cotton fabric is highly suitable for hot climates. It was
introduced into Europe from Bengal in the 17th century, and one way to test its fineness
was to pass a piece of it through a finger ring.
 Calico is a plain-woven textile made from unbleached cotton; it was originally from
Kozhikode or Calicut (in Kerala), hence its name.
 Chintz is a form of Calico printed with floral and other colour patterns. From the 17th
century, when it was first brought to Europe by Portuguese and Dutch traders, chintz
became so popular — the socalled “Calico craze” — that some European mills suffered;
as a result, it was banned in France (1686) and England (1720).
 India also produced large quantities of coarser but very useful fabrics from fibres such as
hemp, flax or linen (a plant widely cultivated for its linseed oil), and jute (cultivated
especially in Bengal).

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  Fabrics -especially cotton and silk — often provided supports for much painted, printed
or embroidered artwork, whether the resulting piece was to be worn as a sari or brocade
or hung as tapestry.

Writing Technology:
India even now possesses a wealth of manuscripts running into many millions. Traditionally,
they were written on materials such as birch bark and palm leaves. Birch bark was mainly used
for north Indian scripts, and the writing was done with ink made of finely ground charcoal
powder in a medium of gum, or soot from oil lamps. With palm leaves, there was no ink; rather,
a sharp point was used to tear the leaf’s surface film; it would then be smeared with a paste of
charcoal powder mixed in oil, and wiped off, leaving the charcoal to adhere to the incised
characters. In both cases, considerable skills were developed to preserve manuscripts from
insects and fungi. Even then, manuscripts could rarely be preserved for more than a few
centuries; as a result, scholars regarded it as a duty to copy old manuscripts afresh every few
generations.

The art of paper-making was introduced into India by the eleventh century CE, perhaps from
China through Nepal. The earliest extant Indian paper manuscript (in the Ashutosh Museum,
Kolkata) is datable to 1105 CE; it was made from the fibres of a mountain plant.
By the latter half of the 15th century, Kashmir was producing paper of attractive quality from the
pulps of rags and hemp, with lime and soda added to whiten the pulp.
Sialkot, Zafarabad, Patna, Murshidabad, Ahmedabad, Aurangabad and Mysore were among the
well-known centres of paper production.

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A British traveller to Surat in1689, J. Ovington, described long scrolls of paper, 3 m in length
and 30 cm in width, which were “smooth, slick and shining”. Several other European visitors
from the 15th to the 18th century testify that Indian paper was of high quality and exported to
countries like Persia. However, in the 19th century, production of hand-made paper declined
with the emergence of paper mills.

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