Thread by @Akshita_Speaks

(Thread) Some astounding contributions of Ancient India to the World:

🔸 India gave the world its first University- Takshashila University: It had 300 lecture halls, labs, library & a towering observatory for astronomical research. It had 10,000 students & 200 professors

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🔸 India gave the numeral world 'zero': Although Babylonians used zero to signify the 'absent', Indians were the first to use the zero as a symbol & in arithmetic operations

🔸 The game of Chess: Chess is believed to have originated in Eastern India in the Gupta Empire,

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where its early form in the 6th century was known as chaturaṅga

🔸 We invented Buttons: Ornamental buttons made from seashell were used in the Indus Valley Civilization by 2000 BCE. Some buttons were carved into geometric shapes and had holes pierced into them

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🔸 Shampoo originated in India: The word shampoo is derived from Hindi word chāmpo & dates to 1762

🔸 Cure for Leprosy: mention of leprosy, as well as ritualistic cures for it, were described in the Atharva-veda (1500–1 200 BCE)

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🔸 Mokshapat meaning the games of Snakes & Ladder: Snakes and ladders originated in India as a game based on morality

🔸 Bhaskaracharya rightly calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun: Using an astronomical model developed by Brahmagupta in the 7th century

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Bhaskara accurately defined many astronomical quantities, including the length of the sidereal year, the time that is required for the Earth to orbit the Sun

🔸 Indians were the first ones to describe the Fibonacci pattern of numbers: This sequence was first described by

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Virahanka (c. 700 AD), Gopāla (c. 1135), and Hemachandra as an outgrowth of the earlier writings on Sanskrit prosody by Pingala

🔸 Cataract Surgery: In India, cataract surgery was performed with a curved needle used to loosen the lens and push the cataract out of the

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field of vision. The eye would later be soaked with warm butter and then bandaged. Though this method was successful, Susruta cautioned that cataract surgery should only be performed when absolutely necessary

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🔸 Ruler measurements: The excavations in Harappans sites have resulted from ivory and shell of rulers or linear measures staked minutes into subdivisions with amazing accuracy calibrations correspond closely with the hasta increments of 1 3/8 inches, traditionally used

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in the old architecture of South India. Old bricks at the archaeological excavations have found dimensions that correspond to the units on these rulers

🔸 Theory of Atom: One of the remarkable scientists of ancient India was Kanad, who is said to have developed the

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atomic theory centuries before John Dalton was born. He speculated the existence of Anu or a small indestructible particles, similar to an atom. He also explained that Anu can have two states – absolute peace and a state of movement

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He continues to be held, the atoms of the same substance combined with each other and in a specific manner synchronized dvyanuka (diatomic molecule) to generate and tryanuka (triatomic molecules)

Source: SW & Incipientifo