This list of Indian inventions and discoveries details the inventions, scientific discoveries and contributions of India, including the ancient, classical and post-classical nations in the subcontinent historically referred to as India and the modern Indian state. It draws from the whole
cultural
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human Society, societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, and habits of the ...
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
,
astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...
,
cartography
Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...
,
metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys.
Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...
,
logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...
,
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
,
metrology
Metrology is the scientific study of measurement. It establishes a common understanding of units, crucial in linking human activities. Modern metrology has its roots in the French Revolution's political motivation to standardise units in Fran ...
and
mineralogy
Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...
were among the branches of study pursued by its scholars. During recent times
science and technology in the Republic of India
After independence, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, initiated reforms to promote higher education and science and technology in India. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)—conceived by a 22-member committee of sc ...
has also focused on
automobile engineering
Automotive engineering, along with aerospace engineering and naval architecture, is a branch of vehicle engineering, incorporating elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software, and safety engineering as applied to the design, manufactu ...
,
information technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...
,
communications
Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...
as well as research into
space
Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider ...
and
polar
Polar may refer to:
Geography
Polar may refer to:
* Geographical pole, either of two fixed points on the surface of a rotating body or planet, at 90 degrees from the equator, based on the axis around which a body rotates
* Polar climate, the c ...
technology.
For the purpose of this list, the
invention
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an i ...
s are regarded as technological firsts developed in India, and as such does not include foreign technologies which India acquired through contact. It also does not include technologies or discoveries developed elsewhere and later invented separately in India, nor inventions by Indian emigres in other places. Changes in minor concepts of design or style and artistic innovations do not appear in the lists.
Inventions
Administration
*
Janapada
The Janapadas () (c. 1500–600 BCE) were the realms, republics (ganapada) and kingdoms (saamarajya) of the Vedic period on the Indian subcontinent. The Vedic period reaches from the late Bronze Age into the Iron Age: from about 1500 BCE to th ...
(democratic republic system) (1100-500 BCE)
*
Local government
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
: presence of
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
in Indus Valley Civilization is characterised by rubbish bins and drainage system throughout urban areas. Megasthenes also mentions presence of a local government in the Mauryan city of
Pataliputra
Pataliputra (IAST: ), adjacent to modern-day Patna, was a city in ancient India, originally built by Magadha ruler Ajatashatru in 490 BCE as a small fort () near the Ganges river.. Udayin laid the foundation of the city of Pataliputra at the ...
.
*
Passport
A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a person's identity. A person with a passport can travel to and from foreign countries more easily and access consular assistance. A passport certifies the personal ...
:
Arthashastra
The ''Arthashastra'' ( sa, अर्थशास्त्रम्, ) is an Ancient Indian Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, political science, economic policy and military strategy. Kautilya, also identified as Vishnugupta and Chanakya, is ...
() make mentions of passes issued at the rate of one ''
masha
In Russian, Masha () is a diminutive of Maria. It has been used as a nickname or as a pet name for women named Maria or Marie. An alternative spelling in the Latin alphabet is "Macha". In Serbo-Croatian and Slovene, "Maša" is a diminutive of "Mar ...
'' per pass to enter and exit the country. Chapter 34 of the Second Book of Arthashastra concerns with the duties of the () who must issue sealed passes before a person could enter or leave the countryside. This constitutes first passports and passbooks in world history
Communication
*
Crystal detector
A crystal detector is an obsolete electronic component used in some early 20th century radio receivers that consists of a piece of crystalline mineral which rectifies the alternating current radio signal. It was employed as a detector (demod ...
by
Jagadish Chandra Bose
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose
(;, ; 30 November 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a biologist, physicist, Botany, botanist and an early writer of science fiction. He was a pioneer in the investigation of radio microwave optics, made significant contr ...
. Crystals were first used as radio wave detectors in 1894 by Bose in his
microwave
Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ran ...
experiments. Bose first patented a crystal detector in 1901.
*
Horn antenna
A horn antenna or microwave horn is an antenna that consists of a flaring metal waveguide shaped like a horn to direct radio waves in a beam. Horns are widely used as antennas at UHF and microwave frequencies, above 300 MHz. They are us ...
or microwave horn, One of the first horn antennas was constructed by
Jagadish Chandra Bose
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose
(;, ; 30 November 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a biologist, physicist, Botany, botanist and an early writer of science fiction. He was a pioneer in the investigation of radio microwave optics, made significant contr ...
in 1897. reprinted in Igor Grigorov, Ed., Antentop ', Vol.2, No.3, p.87-96, Belgorod, Russia
*
Microwave Communication
Microwave transmission is the transmission of information by electromagnetic waves with wavelengths in the microwave frequency range of 300MHz to 300GHz(1 m - 1 mm wavelength) of the electromagnetic spectrum. Microwave signals are normally li ...
: The first public demonstration of microwave transmission was made by
Jagadish Chandra Bose
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose
(;, ; 30 November 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a biologist, physicist, Botany, botanist and an early writer of science fiction. He was a pioneer in the investigation of radio microwave optics, made significant contr ...
, in Calcutta, in 1895, two years before a similar demonstration by Marconi in England, and just a year after
Oliver Lodge
Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, (12 June 1851 – 22 August 1940) was a British physicist and writer involved in the development of, and holder of key patents for, radio. He identified electromagnetic radiation independent of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, H ...
's commemorative lecture on Radio communication, following Hertz's death. Bose's revolutionary demonstration forms the foundation of the technology used in mobile telephony, radars, satellite communication, radios, television broadcast, WiFi, remote controls and countless other applications.
Computers and programming languages
*
J Sharp
Visual J# (pronounced "jay-sharp") is a discontinued implementation of the J# programming language that was a transitional language for programmers of Java and Visual J++ languages, so they could use their existing knowledge and applications wi ...
: Visual J#
programming language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language.
The description of a programming ...
was a transitional language for programmers of
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
and
Visual J++
Visual J++ is Microsoft's discontinued implementation of Java. Syntax, keywords, and grammatical conventions were the same as Java's. It was introduced in 1996 and discontinued in January 2004, replaced to a certain extent by J# and C#.
The i ...
languages, so they could use their existing knowledge and applications on
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...
. It was developed by the
Hyderabad
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...
Julia
Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Julia'' had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g. ...
is a high-level, dynamic programming language. Its features are well suited for numerical analysis and computational science.
Viral B. Shah
Viral B Shah ( hi, वीराल बी. शाह, link=no) is an Indian computer scientist, best known for being a co-creator of the Julia programming language. He was also actively involved in the initial design of the Aadhaar project in Ind ...
an Indian computer scientist contributed to the development of the language in Bangalore while also actively involved in the initial design of the Aadhaar project in India using
India Stack
India Stack refers to the ambitious project of creating a unified software platform to bring India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh- ...
.
*
Kojo Kojo may refer to:
* ''King Kojo'', a novel by Ruth Plumly Thompson
* KOJO (company), Australian entertainment company which supported the Adelaide Film Festival#Indigenous Feature Documentary Initiative
* KOJO (FM), a radio station (91.1 FM) li ...
: Kojo is a
programming language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language.
The description of a programming ...
and
integrated development environment
An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source code editor, build automation tools a ...
(IDE) for computer programming and learning. Kojo is an
open-source software
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...
. It was created, and is actively developed, by Lalit Pant, a computer programmer and teacher living in
Dehradun
Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...
, India.
*
RISC-V
RISC-V (pronounced "risk-five" where five refers to the number of generations of RISC architecture that were developed at the University of California, Berkeley since 1981) is an open standard instruction set architecture (ISA) based on estab ...
ISA (microprocessor) implementations:
**
SHAKTI
In Hinduism, especially Shaktism (a theological tradition of Hinduism), Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति, IAST: Śakti; lit. "Energy, ability, strength, effort, power, capability") is the primordial cosmic energy, female in aspect, and rep ...
- Open Source, Bluespec System
Verilog
Verilog, standardized as IEEE 1364, is a hardware description language (HDL) used to model electronic systems. It is most commonly used in the design and verification of digital circuits at the register-transfer level of abstraction. It is also ...
definitions, for FinFET implementations of the ISA, have been created at
IIT Madras
Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. As one of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), it is recognized as an Institute of National Importance and has be ...
, and are hosted on
GitLab
GitLab Inc. is an open-core company that operates GitLab, a DevOps software package which can develop, secure, and operate software. The open source software project was created by Ukrainian developer Dmitriy Zaporozhets and Dutch developer S ...
.
**
VEGA Microprocessors
VEGA Microprocessors are a portfolio of indigenous processors developed by C-DAC. The portfolio includes several 32-bit/64-bit Single/Multi-core Superscalar In-order/Out-of-Order high performance processors based on the RISC-V ISA. Also feature ...
: India's first indigenous 64-bit, superscalar, out-of-order, multi-core RISC-V Processor design, developed by
C-DAC
The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is an Government of India, Indian autonomous scientific society, operating under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
History
CDAC was created in November 1987, init ...
.
Construction, civil engineering and architecture
* BharatNet(National Optical Fibre Network) is establishment, management, and operation of the National Optical Fibre Network as an Infrastructure to provide a minimum of 100 Mbit/s broadband connectivity to all rural and remote areas. BBNL was established in 2012 to lay the optical fiber.
*
English Bond
Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called '' courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall.
Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by si ...
: The English bond is a form of brickwork with alternating stretching and heading courses, with the headers centred over the midpoint of the stretchers, and perpends in each alternate course aligned.
Harappan architecture
Harappan architecture is the architecture of the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization, an ancient society of people who lived during circa 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE in the Indus Valley of modern-day Pakistan and India.
The civilization's cities were ...
in South Asia was the first to use the so-called English bond in building with bricks.
* Dedicated Freight Corridors is an electric high speed and high capacity railway corridor that is exclusively meant for the transportation of double stack freight cargo.It will help in freeing up the passenger corridor.
*
Dockyard
A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...
: The world's earliest enclosed dockyard was built in the Harappan port city of Lothal circa 2600 BC in Gujarat, India. *
Genome Valley
Genome Valley is an Indian high-technology business district spread across /(3.1 sq mi) in Hyderabad, India. It is located across the suburbs, Turakapally, Shamirpet, Medchal, Uppal, Patancheru, Jeedimetla, Gachibowli and Keesara. The Genome Va ...
is world's first organized cluster for Life Sciences R&D and Clean Manufacturing activities, with world-class infrastructure facilities in the form of Industrial / Knowledge Parks, Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Multi-tenanted dry and wet laboratories and incubation facilities.
* Light Gauge Steel framing is a construction technology using cold-formed steel as the construction material. It can be used for roof systems, floor systems, wall systems, roof panels, decks, or the entire buildings.
* Multi-Modal Logistics Parks (MMLPs) defined as a freight-handling facility with a minimum area of 100 acres (40.5 hectares), with various modes of transport access, mechanized warehouses, specialized storage solutions such as cold storage, facilities for mechanized material handling and inter-modal transfer container terminals, and bulk and break-bulk cargo terminals.
*
Plumbing
Plumbing is any system that conveys fluids for a wide range of applications. Plumbing uses pipes, valves, plumbing fixtures, tanks, and other apparatuses to convey fluids. Heating and cooling (HVAC), waste removal, and potable water delivery ...
: Standardized earthen plumbing pipes with broad
flanges
A flange is a protruded ridge, lip or rim (wheel), rim, either external or internal, that serves to increase shear strength, strength (as the flange of an iron beam (structure), beam such as an I-beam or a T-beam); for easy attachment/transfer of ...
making use of
asphalt
Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...
for preventing leakages appeared in the urban settlements of the Indus Valley Civilization by 2700 BC. Earthen pipes were used in the Indus Valley c. 2700 BC for a city-scale urban drainage system,
* Plastic road are made entirely of plastic or of composites of plastic with other materials. Plastic roads are different from standard roads in the respect that standard roads are made from asphalt concrete, which consists of mineral aggregates and asphalt. Most plastic roads sequester plastic waste within the asphalt as an aggregate. Plastic roads first developed by
Rajagopalan Vasudevan
Rajagopalan Vasudevan, is an Indian scientist who has worked mainly in waste management. He is currently a professor in Thiagarajar College of Engineering. He developed an innovative method to reuse plastic waste to construct better, more dur ...
in 2001
*
Chenab Bridge
The Chenab Rail Bridge is a steel and concrete arch bridge between Bakkal and Kauri and just 42 km from main Reasi town in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir, India. The bridge spans the Chenab River at a height of above the river, mak ...
is world's highest rail bridge and world's first blast-proof steel bridge.The bridge is built using 63mm-thick special blast-proof steel.
*
Squat toilet
A squat toilet (or squatting toilet) is a toilet used by squatting, rather than sitting. This means that the defecation posture used is to place one foot on each side of the toilet drain or hole and to squat over it. There are several types of sq ...
: Toilet platforms above drains, in the proximity of wells, are found in several houses of the cities of
Mohenjodaro
Mohenjo-daro (; sd, موئن جو دڙو'', ''meaning 'Mound of the Dead Men';Harappa
Harappa (; Urdu/ pnb, ) is an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about west of Sahiwal. The Bronze Age Harappan civilisation, now more often called the Indus Valley Civilisation, is named after the site, which takes its name from a mode ...
from the 3rd millennium BCE.
* Soil Health Card under the scheme, the government plans to issue soil cards to farmers which will carry crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilisers required for the individual farms to help farmers to improve productivity through judicious use of inputs. All soil samples are to be tested in various
soil test
Soil test may refer to one or more of a wide variety of soil analysis conducted for one of several possible reasons. Possibly the most widely conducted soil tests are those done to estimate the plant-available concentrations of plant nutrients, i ...
ing labs across the country.
*
Stepwell
Stepwells (also known as vavs or baori) are wells or ponds with a long corridor of steps that descend to the water level. Stepwells played a significant role in defining subterranean architecture in western India from 7th to 19th century. So ...
: Earliest clear evidence of the origins of the stepwell is found in the Indus Valley Civilisation's archaeological site at
Mohenjodaro
Mohenjo-daro (; sd, موئن جو دڙو'', ''meaning 'Mound of the Dead Men';Dholavira
Dholavira ( gu, ધોળાવીરા) is an archaeological site at Khadirbet in Bhachau Taluka of Kutch District, in the state of Gujarat in western India, which has taken its name from a modern-day village south of it. This village is f ...
in India. The three features of stepwells in the subcontinent are evident from one particular site, abandoned by 2500 BCE, which combines a bathing pool, steps leading down to water, and figures of some religious importance into one structure. The early centuries immediately before the common era saw the Buddhists and the Jains of India adapt the stepwells into their architecture. Both the wells and the form of ritual bathing reached other parts of the world with Buddhism. Rock-cut step wells in the subcontinent date from 200 to 400 CE. Subsequently, the wells at Dhank (550625 CE) and stepped ponds at
Bhinmal
Bhinmal (previously Shrimal Nagar) is an ancient town in the Jalore District of Rajasthan, India. It is south of Jalore. Bhinmal was the capital of the Bhil king, then the capital of Gurjaradesa, comprising modern-day southern Rajasthan and nor ...
(850950 CE) were constructed.Livingston & Beach, page xxiii
*
Stupa
A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation.
In Buddhism, circumamb ...
: The origin of the stupa can be traced to 3rd-century BCE India.Encyclopædia Britannica (2008). ''Pagoda''. It was used as a commemorative monument associated with storing sacred relics. The stupa architecture was adopted in
Southeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
and
East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...
, where it evolved into the
pagoda
A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...
, a Buddhist monument used for enshrining sacred relics.
Finance and banking
*
Cheque
A cheque, or check (American English; see spelling differences) is a document that orders a bank (or credit union) to pay a specific amount of money from a person's account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. The pers ...
: There is early evidence of using cheques. In India, during the
Maurya Empire
The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...
(from 321 to 185 BC), a commercial instrument called the adesha was in use, which was an order on a banker desiring him to pay the money of the note to a third person.
*
Direct Benefit Transfer
Direct Benefit Transfer or DBT is an attempt to change the mechanism of transferring subsidies launched by Government of India on 1 January 2013. This scheme or program aims to establish a Giro system to transfer subsidies directly to the peopl ...
, This program aims to transfer subsidies directly to the people through their bank accounts. It is hoped that crediting subsidies into bank accounts will reduce leakages, delays, etc.
* Digital Banking Unit(DBU) is a specialised fixed point business unit/hub housing certain minimum digital infrastructure for delivering digital banking products and services as well as servicing existing financial products & services digitally, in both self-service and assisted mode.
* Payments bank is an Indian new model of banks conceptualised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) without issuing credit.
*
Small Finance Bank
Small may refer to:
Science and technology
* SMALL, an ALGOL-like programming language
* Small (anatomy), the lumbar region of the back
* ''Small'' (journal), a nano-science publication
* <small>, an HTML element that defines smaller text
...
are a type of niche banks in India. Banks with a small finance bank (SFB) license can provide basic banking service of acceptance of deposits and lending. The aim behind these is to provide financial inclusion to sections of the economy not being served by other banks,
* Micro Finance Institutions(MFI) is an organization that offers financial services to low income populations.
Games
*
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...
: The game may have originally developed among expatriate officers in
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
*
Blindfold Chess
Blindfold chess, also known as ''sans voir'', is a form of chess play wherein the players do not see the positions of the pieces and do not touch them. This forces players to maintain a mental model of the positions of the pieces. Moves are commu ...
: Games prohibited by Buddha includes a variant of ashtapada game played on imaginary boards. ''Akasam astapadam'' was an ''ashtapada'' variant played with no board, literally "astapadam played in the sky". A correspondent in the
American Chess Bulletin
The ''American Chess Bulletin'' was a chess periodical that was published monthly (November-April) and bi-monthly (May-October) from 1904 to 1962. It was published from New York City. The editor was Hermann Helms (1870–1963), who founded the ma ...
identifies this as likely the earliest literary mention of a blindfold chess variant.
*
Carrom
Carrom is a tabletop game of Indian origin in which players flick discs, attempting to knock them to the corners of the board. The game is very popular in the Indian subcontinent, and is known by various names in different languages. In Sou ...
: The game of carrom originated in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. One carrom board with its surface made of glass is still available in one of the palaces in
Patiala, India
Patiala () is a city in southeastern Punjab, northwestern India. It is the fourth largest city in the state and is the administrative capital of Patiala district. Patiala is located around the ''Qila Mubarak'' (the 'Fortunate Castle') constructe ...
. It became very popular among the masses after
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. State-level competitions were being held in the different states of India during the early part of the twentieth century. Serious carrom tournaments may have begun in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
in 1935 but by 1958, both India and Sri Lanka had formed official federations of carrom clubs, sponsoring tournaments and awarding prizes.
*
Chaturanga
Chaturanga ( sa, चतुरङ्ग; ') is an ancient Indian strategy game. While there is some uncertainty, the prevailing view among chess historians is that it is the common ancestor of the board games chess (European), xiangqi (Chinese), ...
: The precursor of
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
originated in India during the
Gupta dynasty
The Gupta Empire was an Outline of ancient India, ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period ...
(c. 280550 CE).Murray (1913)Forbes (1860)Jones, William (1807). "On the Indian Game of Chess". pages 323333Linde, Antonius (1981) Both the
Persians
The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian.
...
and
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
s ascribe the origins of the game of Chess to the Indians.Wilkinson, Charles K (May 1943)Bird (1893), page 63 The words for "chess" in
Old Persian
Old Persian is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan language, Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native ...
and
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
are ''chatrang'' and ''
shatranj
Shatranj ( ar, شطرنج; fa, شترنج; from Middle Persian ''chatrang'' ) is an old form of chess, as played in the Sasanian Empire. Its origins are in the Indian game of chaturaṅga. Modern chess gradually developed from this game, as i ...
'' respectively – terms derived from '' caturaṅga'' in
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
,Hooper & Whyld (1992), page 74Sapra, Rahul (2000). "Sports in India". Students' Britannica India (Vol. 6). Mumbai: Popular Prakashan. p. 106. . which literally means an ''army of four divisions'' or ''four corps''.Meri (2005), page 148Basham (2001), page 208 Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape.Encyclopædia Britannica (2002). ''Chess: Ancient precursors and related games''. This game was introduced to the
Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education of
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
nobility.
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
pilgrims,
Silk Road
The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...
traders and others carried it to the
Far East
The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.
The ter ...
where it was transformed and assimilated into a game often played on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares. Chaturanga reached Europe through Persia, the
Byzantine empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
and the expanding
Arabian
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...
empire.Encyclopædia Britannica (2007). ''Chess: Introduction to Europe''.
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
carried Shatranj to
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
, and Spain by the 10th century where it took its final modern form of chess.
*
Kabaddi
Kabaddi is a contact team sport. Played between two teams of seven players, the objective of the game is for a single player on offence, referred to as a "raider", to run into the opposing team's half of the court, touch out as many of their ...
: The game of ''kabaddi'' originated in India during prehistory.Alter, page 88 Suggestions on how it evolved into the modern form range from wrestling exercises, military drills, and collective self-defence but most authorities agree that the game existed in some form or the other in India during the period between 1500 and 400 BCE.
*
Kalaripayattu
Kalaripayattu (; also known simply as Kalari) is an Indian martial art that originated in modern-day Kerala, a state on the southwestern coast of India. Kalaripayattu is known for its long-standing history within Indian martial arts, and is ...
: One of the world's oldest form of martial arts is
Kalaripayattu
Kalaripayattu (; also known simply as Kalari) is an Indian martial art that originated in modern-day Kerala, a state on the southwestern coast of India. Kalaripayattu is known for its long-standing history within Indian martial arts, and is ...
that developed in the southwest state of
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
in India. It is believed to be the oldest surviving martial art in India, with a history spanning over 3,000 years.
* Ludo:
Pachisi
Pachisi (, Hindustani: əˈtʃiːsiː is a cross and circle board game that originated in Ancient India. It is described in the ancient text ''Mahabharata'' under the name of "Pasha". It is played on a board shaped like a symmetrical cross. A ...
originated in India by the 6th century.MSN Encarta (2008) ''Pachisi'' The earliest evidence of this game in India is the depiction of boards on the caves of Ajanta. A variant of this game, called Ludo, made its way to England during the British Raj.
*
Mallakhamba
Mallakhamba or mallakhamb is a traditional sport, originating from the Indian subcontinent, in which a gymnast performs aerial yoga or gymnastic postures and wrestling grips in concert with a vertical stationary or hanging wooden pole, cane, or ...
: It is a traditional sport, originating from the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
, in which a
gymnast
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, sh ...
performs aerial
yoga
Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...
or
gymnastic
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shoul ...
postures and
wrestling
Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...
grips in concert with a vertical stationary or hanging wooden pole, cane, or rope.The earliest literary known mention of Mallakhamb is in the 1135 CE Sanskrit classic ''
Manasollasa
The ' also known as ''Abhilashitartha Chintamani'', is an early 12th-century Sanskrit text composed by the Kalyani Chalukya king Someshvara III, who ruled in present-day Karnataka . It is an encyclopedic work covering topics such as polity, gover ...
'', written by
Someshvara III
Someshvara III (; ) was a Western Chalukya king (also known as the Kalyani Chalukyas), the son and successor of Vikramaditya VI. He ascended the throne of the Western Chalukya Kingdom in 1126 CE, or 1127 CE.
Someshvara III, the third king in t ...
. It has been thought to be the ancestor of
Pole Dancing
Pole dance combines dance and acrobatics centered on a vertical pole. This performance art form takes place not only in gentleman's clubs as erotic dance, but also as a mainstream form of fitness, practiced in gyms and dedicated dance studios ...
Seven Stones
''Seven stones'' (also known by various other names) is a traditional game from the Indian subcontinent involving a ball and a pile of flat stones, generally played between two teams in a large outdoor area.
History
Seven Stones, one of the ...
: An Indian subcontinent game also called Pitthu is played in rural areas has its origins in the Indus Valley Civilization.
* Snakes and ladders: Vaikunta pali Snakes and ladders originated in India as a game based on morality.Augustyn, pages 2728 During British rule of India, this game made its way to England, and was eventually introduced in the United States of America by game-pioneer
Milton Bradley
Milton Bradley (November 8, 1836 – May 30, 1911) was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with his eponymous enterprise, which was purchased by Hasbro in 1984, and ...
in 1943.
* Suits game: Kridapatram is an early suits game, made of painted rags, invented in Ancient India. The term ''kridapatram'' literally means "painted rags for playing." Paper playing cards first appeared in East Asia during the 9th century. The medieval Indian game of ''
ganjifa
Ganjifa, Ganjapa or Gânjaphâ, is a card game and type of playing cards that are most associated with Persia and India. After Ganjifa cards fell out of use in Iran before the twentieth century, India became the last country to produce them. The f ...
'', or playing cards, is first recorded in the 16th century.
*
Table Tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...
: It has been suggested that makeshift versions of the game were developed by British military officers in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
around the 1860s or 1870s, who brought it back with them.
*
Vajra-mushti
Vajra-musti (Sanskrit:, "thunder fist" or "diamond fist") refers to a "fist-load, knuckleduster-like" weapon and also a form of Indian wrestling in which the weapon is employed. The weapon is sometimes called ''Indra-musti'' which means Indra's f ...
: refers to a wrestling where
knuckleduster
Brass knuckles (variously referred to as knuckles, knucks, brass knucks, knucklebusters, knuckledusters, knuckle daggers, English punch, iron fist, paperweight, or a classic) are "fist-load weapons" used in hand-to-hand combat. Brass knuckles ...
like weapon is employed.The first literary mention of vajra-musti comes from the ''Manasollasa'' of the
Chalukya
The Chalukya dynasty () was a Classical Indian dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dynas ...
king Someswara III (1124–1138), although it has been conjectured to have existed since as early as the
Maurya dynasty
The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...
Genetics
*
Amrapali
Āmrapālī, also known as "Ambapālika", "Ambapali", or "Amra" was a celebrated ''nagarvadhu'' (royal courtesan) of the republic of Vaishali (located in present-day Bihar) in ancient India around 500 BC. Following the Buddha's teachings, she b ...
mango is a named mango cultivar introduced in 1971 by Dr. Pijush Kanti Majumdar at the Indian Agriculture Research Institute in Delhi.
* Synthetic genes and decoding of protein synthesising gene: Indian-American biochemist Har Gobind Khorona, created the first synthetic gene and uncovered how a DNA's genetic code determines protein synthesis – which dictates how a cell functions. That discovery earned Khorana, along with his two colleagues, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968.
*''
Pseudomonas putida
''Pseudomonas putida'' is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped, saprotrophic soil bacterium.
Based on 16S rRNA analysis, ''P. putida'' was taxonomically confirmed to be a ''Pseudomonas'' species (''sensu stricto'') and placed, along with several other ...
'': Indian (Bengali) inventor and microbiologist
Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty
Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty ( bn, আনন্দমোহন চক্রবর্তী ''Ānandamōhan Cakrabartī''), PhD (4 April 1938 – 10 Jul 2020) was an Indian American microbiologist, scientist, and researcher, most notable for his w ...
created a variety of man-made microorganism to break down crude oil. He genetically engineered a new variety of ''
Pseudomonas
''Pseudomonas'' is a genus of Gram-negative, Gammaproteobacteria, belonging to the family Pseudomonadaceae and containing 191 described species. The members of the genus demonstrate a great deal of metabolic diversity and consequently are able ...
''
bacteria
Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...
("the
oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
-eating bacteria") in 1971. In ''
Diamond v. Chakrabarty
''Diamond v. Chakrabarty'', 447 U.S. 303 (1980), was a United States Supreme Court case dealing with whether living organisms can be patented. Writing for a five-justice majority, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger held that human-made bacteria could ...
'', the United States Supreme Court granted Chakrabarty's invention patent, even though it was a living organism. The court ruling decreed that Chakrabarty's discovery was "not nature's handiwork, but his own..." Chakrabarty secured his patent in 1980.
* Mynvax is world's first "warm" COVID-19 vaccine, developed by
IISc
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The institute wa ...
, capable of withstanding 37C for a month and neutralise all coronavirus variants of concern.
*
ZyCoV-D
ZyCoV-D is a DNA vaccine, DNA plasmid-based COVID-19 vaccine developed by Indian pharmaceutical company Cadila Healthcare, with support from the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council. It is emergency use authorisation, approved ...
vaccine, World's First DNA Based Covid-19 Vaccine.
Metallurgy and manufacturing
* 2G-Ethanol technology, which produces ethanol from agricultural residue feedstock, has the potential to significantly reduce emissions from the transportation and agricultural sectors in India.The IP belongs to Praj Industries.
* High ash coal gasification(Coal to Methanol), The Central Government gave the country world's first 'coal to methanol' (CTM) plant built by the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). The plant was inaugurated in BHEL's Hyderabad unit, The pilot project is the first that uses the gasification method for converting high-ash coal into methanol. Handling of high ash and heat required to melt this high amount of ash is a challenge in the case of Indian coal, which generally has high ash content. Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited has developed the fluidized bed gasification technology suitable for high ash Indian coals to produce syngas and then convert syngas to methanol with 99% purity.
* CBM in Blast Furnace, Tata Steel has initiated the trial for continuous injection of Coal Bed Methane (CBM) gas in one of the Blast Furnaces at its Jamshedpur Works, making it the first such instance in the world where a steel company has used CBM as injectant. This process is expected to reduce coke rate by 10 kg/thm, which will be equivalent to reducing 33 kg of per tonne of crude steel.
*
Crucible steel
Crucible steel is steel made by melting pig iron (cast iron), iron, and sometimes steel, often along with sand, glass, ashes, and other flux (metallurgy), fluxes, in a crucible. In ancient times steel and iron were impossible to melt using char ...
: Perhaps as early as 300 BCE—although certainly by 200 BCE—high quality steel was being produced in southern India, by what Europeans would later call the crucible technique. In this system, high-purity wrought iron, charcoal, and glass were mixed in a crucible and heated until the iron melted and absorbed the carbon.
* Diamond drills: in the 12th century BCE or 7th century BCE, Indians not only innovated use of diamond tipped drills but also invented double diamond tipped drills for bead manufacturing.
* Diamond cutting and polishing: The technology of cutting and polishing diamonds was invented in India, Ratnapariksha, a text dated to 6th century talks about diamond cutting and Al-Beruni speaks about the method of using lead plate for diamond polishing in the 11th century CE.
* DMR grade steels for several high-technology applications, such as military hardware and aerospace, need to possess ultrahigh strength (UHS; minimum yield strength of 1380 MPa (200 ksi)) coupled with high fracture toughness in order to meet the requirement of minimum weight while ensuring high reliability.
*
Etched Carnelian beads
Etched carnelian beads, or sometimes bleached carnelian beads, are a type of ancient decorative beads made from carnelian with an etched design in white, which were probably manufactured by the Indus Valley civilization during the 3rd millennium BC ...
: are a type of ancient decorative beads made from
carnelian
Carnelian (also spelled cornelian) is a brownish-red mineral commonly used as a semi-precious gemstone. Similar to carnelian is sard, which is generally harder and darker (the difference is not rigidly defined, and the two names are often use ...
with an etched design in white. They were made according to a technique of alkaline-etching developed by the Harappans during the 3rd millennium BCE and were widely disperced from China in the east to Greece in the west.
* Fortified Cabin, is a car designing technique by TATA Motors such that the high-strength steel structure absorbs impact energy and protects the passenger during an unfortunate collision.Tata Nexon has the fortified cabin design for achieving full 5 star safety ratings.
*
Glass blowing
Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble (or parison) with the aid of a blowpipe (or blow tube). A person who blows glass is called a ''glassblower'', ''glassmith'', or ''gaffer''. A '' lampworke ...
: Rudimentary form of glass blowing from
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
is attested earlier than Western Asian counterparts(where it is attested not earlier than 1st century BCE) in the form of
Indo-Pacific beads Indo-Pacific beads are a type of mainly tube drawn glass beads which originated in the Indian Subcontinent but manufactured widely in South east asia. These are usually 6mm in diameter, undecorated and come in various colours for example green, yel ...
which uses glass blowing to make cavity before being subjected to tube drawn technique for bead making dated more than 2500 BP. Beads are made by attaching molten glass gather to the end of a blowpipe, a bubble is then blown into the gather. The glass blown vessels were rarely attested and were imported commodity in 1st millennium CE though.
*
Iron pillar of Delhi
The iron pillar of Delhi is a structure high with a diameter that was constructed by Chandragupta II (reigned c. 375–415 AD), and now stands in the Qutb complex at Mehrauli in Delhi, India.Finbarr Barry Flood, 2003"Pillar, palimpsets, and pr ...
: The world's first iron pillar was the Iron pillar of Delhi—erected at the time of
Chandragupta II
Chandragupta II (r.c. 376-415), also known by his title Vikramaditya, as well as Chandragupta Vikramaditya, was the third ruler of the Gupta Empire in India, and was one of the most powerful emperors of the Gupta dynasty.
Chandragupta continue ...
Vikramaditya (375413). The pillar has attracted attention of
archaeologists
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
and materials scientists and has been called "a testament to the skill of ancient Indian blacksmiths" because of its high resistance to
corrosion
Corrosion is a natural process that converts a refined metal into a more chemically stable oxide. It is the gradual deterioration of materials (usually a metal) by chemical or electrochemical reaction with their environment. Corrosion engine ...
.
*
Lost-wax casting
Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is ...
: Metal casting by the
Indus Valley civilization
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900&n ...
began around 3500 BC in the
Mohenjodaro
Mohenjo-daro (; sd, موئن جو دڙو'', ''meaning 'Mound of the Dead Men';dancing girl" that dates back nearly 5,000 years to the Harappan period (c. 3300–1300 BC). Other examples include the buffalo, bull and dog found at Mohenjodaro and
Harappa
Harappa (; Urdu/ pnb, ) is an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about west of Sahiwal. The Bronze Age Harappan civilisation, now more often called the Indus Valley Civilisation, is named after the site, which takes its name from a mode ...
,Kenoyer, J. M. & H. M.-L. Miller, (1999). Metal Technologies of the Indus Valley Tradition in Pakistan and Western India., in ''The Archaeometallurgy of the Asian Old World''., ed. V. C. Pigott. Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Museum. two
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
figures found at the Harappan site
Lothal
Lothal () was one of the southernmost sites of the ancient Indus Valley civilisation, located in the Bhāl region of the modern state of Gujarāt. Construction of the city is believed to have begun around 2200 BCE.
Archaeological Survey of ...
in the district of Ahmedabad of Gujarat, and likely a covered cart with wheels missing and a complete cart with a driver found at
Chanhudaro
Chanhu-daro is an archaeological site belonging to the Indus Valley civilization. The site is located south of Mohenjo-daro, in Sindh, Pakistan. The settlement was inhabited between 4000 and 1700 BCE, and is considered to have been a centr ...
.
*
Lost wax
Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is ...
Casting: It is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass or bronze) is cast from an original sculpture. Intricate works can be achieved by this method.The oldest known example of this technique is a 6,000-year old amulet from the Indus Valley Civilization. * Seamless
celestial globe
Celestial globes show the apparent positions of the stars in the sky. They omit the Sun, Moon, and planets because the positions of these bodies vary relative to those of the stars, but the ecliptic, along which the Sun moves, is indicated.
The ...
: Considered one of the most remarkable feats in
metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys.
Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...
, it was invented in India in between 1589 and 1590 CE.Kamarustafa (1992), page 48 Before they were rediscovered in the 1980s, it was believed by modern metallurgists to be technically impossible to produce metal globes without any
seams
Seam may refer to:
Science and technology
* Seam (geology), a stratum of coal or mineral that is economically viable; a bed or a distinct layer of vein of rock in other layers of rock
* Seam (metallurgy), a metalworking process the joins the ends ...
, even with modern technology.
* HIsarna a new process for production of steel, one it says "results in enormous efficiency gains" and reduces energy use and carbon dioxide emissions by a fifth of that in the conventional blast furnace route.It's IP belongs to
TATA Steel
Tata Steel Limited is an Indian multinational steel-making company, based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand and headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of the Tata Group.
Formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO), Tata ...
.
* Spray-drying Buffalo milk, The collective consensus of dairy experts worldwide was that buffalo milk could not be spray-dried due to its high fat content. Harichand Megha Dalaya & his invention of the spray dry equipment, led to the world's first buffalo milk spray-dryer, at Amul Dairy in Gujarat.
*
Stoneware
Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a Vitrification#Ceramics, vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refracto ...
: Earliest stonewares, predecessors of
porcelain
Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainl ...
have been recorded at Indus Valley Civilization sites of
Harappa
Harappa (; Urdu/ pnb, ) is an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about west of Sahiwal. The Bronze Age Harappan civilisation, now more often called the Indus Valley Civilisation, is named after the site, which takes its name from a mode ...
and
Mohenjo Daro
Mohenjo-daro (; sd, موئن جو دڙو'', ''meaning 'Mound of the Dead Men';Tube drawn technology: Indians used tube drawn technology for glass bead manufacturing which was first developed in the 2nd century BCE.
*
Tumble polishing
Tumble finishing, also known as tumbling or rumbling, is a technique for smoothing and polishing a rough surface on relatively small parts. In the field of metalworking, a similar process called barreling, or barrel finishing,Degarmo, p. 781. wo ...
: Indians innvoted polishing method in the 10th century BCE for mass production of polished stone beads.
*
Wootz steel
Wootz steel, also known as Seric steel, is a crucible steel characterized by a pattern of bands and high carbon content. These bands are formed by sheets of microscopic carbides within a tempered martensite or pearlite matrix in higher carbon st ...
: Wootz steel is an ultra-high carbon steel and the first form of crucible steel manufactured by the applications and use of
nanomaterials
*
Nanomaterials describe, in principle, materials of which a single unit is sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 and 100 nm (the usual definition of nanoscale).
Nanomaterials research takes a materials science-based approach to nan ...
in its microstructure and is characterised by its ultra-high carbon content exhibiting properties such as superplasticity and high impact hardness. Archaeological and
Tamil language
Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...
literary
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...
evidence suggests that this manufacturing process was already in existence in South India well before the common era, with
wootz steel
Wootz steel, also known as Seric steel, is a crucible steel characterized by a pattern of bands and high carbon content. These bands are formed by sheets of microscopic carbides within a tempered martensite or pearlite matrix in higher carbon st ...
exported from the Chera dynasty and called ''Seric Iron'' in Rome, and later known as
Damascus steel
Damascus steel was the forged steel of the blades of swords smithed in the Near East from ingots of Wootz steel either imported from Southern India or made in production centres in Sri Lanka, or Khorasan, Iran. These swords are characterize ...
in Europe.Srinivasan 1994Srinivasan & Griffiths Reproduction research is undertaken by scientists Dr. Oleg Sherby and Dr. Jeff Wadsworth and the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response ...
have all attempted to create steels with characteristics similar to Wootz, but without success. J.D Verhoeven and Al Pendray attained some success in the reconstruction methods of production, proved the role of impurities of ore in the pattern creation, and reproduced Wootz steel with patterns microscopically and visually identical to one of the ancient blade patterns.
Music
* Musical notation, Musical Notation: Samaveda text (1200 BC – 1000 BC) contains notated melodies, and these are probably the world's oldest surviving ones.Bruno Nettl, Ruth M. Stone, James Porter and Timothy Rice (1999), The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Routledge, , pages 242–245
Metrology
*Crescograph: The crescograph, a device for measuring growth in plants, was invented in the early 20th century by the Bengali scientist Sir
Jagadish Chandra Bose
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose
(;, ; 30 November 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a biologist, physicist, Botany, botanist and an early writer of science fiction. He was a pioneer in the investigation of radio microwave optics, made significant contr ...
.
* Incense clock: The incense clock is a timekeeping device used to measure minutes, hours, or days, incense clocks were commonly used at homes and temples in dynastic times. Although popularly associated with China the incense clock is believed to have originated in India, at least in its fundamental form if not function.Schafer (1963), pages 160161Bedini (1994), pages 6980 Early incense clocks found in China between the 6th and 8th centuries CE—the period it appeared in China all seem to have Devanagari, Devanāgarī carvings on them instead of Chinese seal characters. Incense itself was introduced to China from India in the early centuries CE, along with the spread of Buddhism by travelling monks.Bedini (1994), page 25Seiwert (2003), page 96Kumar, Yukteshwar (2005), page 65 Edward H. Schafer, Edward Schafer asserts that incense clocks were probably an Indian invention, transmitted to China, which explains the Devanāgarī inscriptions on early incense clocks found in China. Silvio Bedini on the other hand asserts that incense clocks were derived in part from incense seals mentioned in Tantric Buddhism, Tantric Buddhist scriptures, which first came to light in China after those scriptures from India were translated into Chinese, but holds that the time-telling function of the seal was incorporated by the Chinese.
*Shearing Interferometer: Invented by M.V.R.K. Murty, a type of Lateral Shearing Interferometer utilises a laser source for measuring refractive index.
Science and technology
*Fibonacci number: The Fibonacci numbers were first described in Indian mathematics, as early as 200 BC in work by Pingala on enumerating possible patterns of Sanskrit poetry formed from syllables of two lengths.
* Bipyrazole Organic Crystals, the piezoelectric molecules developed by Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, IISER scientists recombine following mechanical fracture without any external intervention, autonomously self-healing in milliseconds with crystallographic precision.
* Digital data, Digital vaccines: Developed based on fundamental neurocognitive computing and immunological modulation discoveries in pediatric and young adult populations, this sub field of digital therapeutics was invented by Bhargav Sri Prakash, through work led by his team at Carnegie Mellon University.
*High-electron-mobility transistor, e-mode HEMT, In 2019 scientists from Bangalore have developed a highly reliable, High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMTs) that is a normally OFF device and can switch currents up to 4A and operates at 600V. This first-ever indigenous HEMT device made from gallium nitride (GaN). Such transistors are called e-mode or enhancement mode transistors.
* Nano Urea, the size of one nano urea liquid particle is 30 nanometre and compared to the conventional granular urea it has about 10,000 times more surface area to volume size. Due to the ultra-small size and surface properties, the nano urea liquid gets absorbed by plants more effectively when sprayed on their leaves.Ramesh Raliya of IFFCO is the inventor of nano urea.
* Locomotive with Regenerative braking, BHEL has developed world's first ever DC electric locomotive with a regenerative braking system through its in-house R&D centre, First proposed by the Railway Ministry, the concept involving the energy-efficient regeneration system was put into shape by BHEL in a 5,000 HP WAG-7 electric locomotive.
* In2Se3 transistor developed by the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), a ferroelectric channel semiconductor FET, i.e., FeS-FET, whose gate-triggered and polarization-induced resistive switching is then exploited to mimic an artificial synapse.
* Indian Ocean Dipole is an unusual pattern in the ocean-atmosphere system of the equatorial Indian Ocean that influences the monsoon and can offset the adverse impact of El Nino. It is typically characterized by cooler than normal eastern equatorial Indian Ocean and warmer than normal west and unusual equatorial easterly winds. It was discovered in Centre for Atmospheric And Oceanic Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, IISc. team led by NH Saji in 1999.
* Stirrup, Toe stirrup: The earliest known manifestation of the stirrup, which was a toe loop that held the big toe was used in India in as early as 500 BCEChamberlin (2007), page 80 or perhaps by 200 BCE according to other sources.Hobson (2004), page 103Woods & Woods (2000), pages 5253 This ancient stirrup consisted of a looped rope for the big toe which was at the bottom of a saddle made of fibre or leather. Such a configuration made it suitable for the warm climate of most of India where people used to ride horses barefoot. A pair of megalithic double bent iron bars with curvature at each end, excavated in Stone circles of Junapani, Junapani in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have been regarded as stirrups although they could as well be something else."16.17.4: Stirrups". ''Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology'' (Vol. 1). Edited by Amalananda Ghosh (1990). page 336 Buddhist carvings in the temples of Sanchi, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, Mathura and the Bhaja Caves, Bhaja caves dating back between the 1st and 2nd century BCE figure horsemen riding with elaborate saddles with feet slipped under girths.Azzaroli (1985), page 156Addington (1990), page 45Barua (2005), pages 1617 John Marshall (archaeologist), Sir John Marshall described the Sanchi relief as "the earliest example by some five centuries of the use of stirrups in any part of the world". In the 1st century CE horse riders in northern India, where winters are sometimes long and cold, were recorded to have their booted feet attached to hooked stirrups. However the form, the conception of the primitive Indian stirrup spread west and east, gradually evolving into the stirrup of today.
* Solution combustion synthesis (SCS) was accidentally discovered in 1988 at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, India. SCS involves an exothermic redox chemical reaction between an oxidizer like metal nitrate and a fuel in an aqueous medium.
* India's three-stage nuclear power programme, Three-stage nuclear power programme was formulated by Homi Bhabha, the well-known physicist, in the 1950s to secure the country's long term energy independence, through the use of uranium and thorium reserves found in the monazite sands of coastal regions of South India.
Textile and material production
* Button (clothing), Button: Ornamental buttons—made from seashell—were used in the Indus Valley civilisation for ornamental purposes by 2000 BCE.Hesse, Rayner W. & Hesse, Rayner W. Jr. (2007). ''Jewelrymaking Through History: An Encyclopedia''. Greenwood Publishing Group. 35. . Some buttons were carved into geometric shapes and had holes pierced into them so that they could be attached to clothing by using a thread. Ian McNeil (1990) holds that: "The button, in fact, was originally used more as an ornament than as a fastening, the earliest known being found at Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley. It is made of a curved shell and about 5000 years old."
* Calico (textile), Calico: Calico had originated in the subcontinent by the 11th century and found mention in Indian literature, by the 12th-century writer Hemachandra. He has mentioned calico fabric prints done in a lotus design.Encyclopædia Britannica (2008). ''calico'' The Indian textile merchants traded in calico with the Africans by the 15th century and calico fabrics from Gujarat appeared in Egypt. Trade with Europe followed from the 17th century onward. Within India, calico originated in Kozhikode.
* Carding, Carding devices: Historian of science Joseph Needham ascribes the invention of bow-instruments used in textile technology to India. The earliest evidence for using bow-instruments for carding comes from India (2nd century CE). These carding devices, called ''kaman'' and ''dhunaki'' would loosen the texture of the fibre by the means of a vibrating string.
* Cashmere wool, Cashmere: The fibre cashmere fibre also known as ''pashm'' or ''pashmina'' for its use in Kashmir shawl, the handmade shawls of Kashmir, India. The woolen shawls made from wool in Indian administered Kashmir find written mention between the 3rd century BCE and the 11th century CE.Encyclopædia Britannica (2008). ''kashmir shawl''.
* Spinning wheel#Charkha, Charkha (Spinning wheel): invented in India, between 500 and 1000 CE.
* Chintz: The origin of Chintz is from the printed all cotton fabric of calico in India.Encyclopædia Britannica (2008). ''chintz'' The origin of the word ''chintz'' itself is from the Hindi language word चित्र् (chitr), which means an image.Hāṇḍā (1998), page 133
* Cotton, Cotton cultivation: Cotton was cultivated by the inhabitants of the Indus Valley civilisation by the 5th millennium BCE4th millennium BCE. The Indus cotton industry was well developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be practised until the modern industrialisation of India. Well before the Common Era, the use of cotton textiles had spread from India to the Mediterranean and beyond.
* Cotton gin, Single roller cotton gin: The Ajanta Caves of India yield evidence of a single roller cotton gin in use by the 5th century. This cotton gin was used in India until innovations were made in form of foot powered gins.Baber (1996), page 56 The cotton gin was invented in India as a mechanical device known as ''charkhi'', more technically the "wooden-worm-worked roller". This mechanical device was, in some parts of India, driven by water power.Baber (1996), page 57
*Mordant, Modrant (Dye Fixing): Modrants for fixing dyes were used since Indus Valley civilisation, Indus valley civilization, it exhibited Indian mastry over clothes dying which was unrivalled until the invention of western chemical dyes.
* Muslin: The fabric was 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. Roman document Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Periplus of Erythraean Sea describes Muslin dated 59–62 CE being exported from Barygaza (Bharuch). In the 9th century, an Islamic economics in the world, Arab merchant named Sulaiman makes note of the material's origin in Bengal (known as ''Ruhml'' in Arabic language, Arabic).
* Palampore: पालमपोर् (Hindi language) of Indian originEncyclopædia Britannica (2008). ''interior design'' was imported to the western world—notable England and Colonial America—from India.Encyclopædia Britannica (2008). ''crewel work''Encyclopædia Britannica (2008). ''quilting'' In 17th-century England these hand painted cotton fabrics influenced native crewel work design. Shipping vessels from India also took palampore to colonial America, where it was used in quilting.
* Prayer flags: The Buddhism, Buddhist sūtras, written on cloth in India, were transmitted to other regions of the world.Barker, page 13 These sutras, written on banners, were the origin of prayer flags. Legend ascribes the origin of the prayer flag to the Shakyamuni Buddha, whose prayers were written on battle flags used by the ''Deva (Buddhism), devas'' against their adversaries, the ''Asura (Buddhism), asuras''.Beer, page 60 The legend may have given the Indian ''bhikku'' a reason for carrying the 'heavenly' banner as a way of signyfying his commitment to ''ahimsa''.Wise, page 1112 This knowledge was carried into Tibet by 800 CE, and the actual flags were introduced no later than 1040 CE, where they were further modified. The Indian monk Atisha (9801054 CE) introduced the Indian practice of printing on cloth prayer flags to Tibet.
* Tanning (leather): Ancient civilizations used leather for waterskins, bags, harnesses and tack, boats, armour, quivers, scabbards, boots, and sandal (footwear), sandals. Tanning was being carried out by the inhabitants of Mehrgarh in Ancient India between 7000 and 3300 BCE.Possehl, Gregory L. (1996). ''Mehrgarh'' in ''Oxford Companion to Archaeology'', edited by Brian Fagan. Oxford University Press.
Wellbeing
* Indian clubs: The Indian club—which appeared in Europe during the 18th century—was used long by India's native soldiery before its introduction to Europe.Todd, Jan (1995) ''From Milo to Milo: A History of Barbells, Dumbells, and Indian Clubs'' Accessed in September 2008. Hosted on the LA84 Foundation, LA84 Foundation Sports Library. During the British Raj the British officers in India performed calisthenic exercises with clubs to keep in physical condition. From Britain the use of club swinging spread to the rest of the world.
* Meditation: The oldest documented evidence of the practice of meditation are wall arts in the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
from approximately 5,000 to 3,500 BCE, showing people seated in meditative postures with half-closed eyes.
* Shampoo: The word ''wikt:Shampoo, shampoo'' in English is derived from Hindustani language, Hindustani ''chāmpo'' (चाँपो ), and dates to 1762. A variety of herbs and their extracts were used as shampoos since ancient times in India, evidence of early herbal shampoo have been discovered from Indus Valley Civilization site of Banawali dated to 2750–2500 BCE. A very effective early shampoo was made by boiling Sapindus with dried Indian gooseberry (aamla) and a few other herbs, using the strained extract. Sapindus, also known as soapberries or soapnuts, is called ''Ksuna'' (Sanskrit: क्षुण) in ancient Indian texts and its fruit pulp contain saponins, a natural surfactant. The extract of Ksuna, creates a lather which Indian texts identify as ''phenaka'' (Sanskrit: फेनक), leaves the hair soft, shiny and manageable. Other products used for hair cleansing were shikakai (Acacia concinna), soapnuts (Sapindus), hibiscus flowers,Rahman, , Oxford University Press, , page 145 ritha (Sapindus mukorossi) and arappu (Albizzia amara). Guru Nanak, the founding prophet and the first Sikh Guru, Guru of Sikhism, made references to soapberry tree and soap in 16th century. Washing of hair and body massage (champu) during a daily strip wash was an indulgence of early colonial traders in India. When they returned to Europe, they introduced their newly learnt habits, including the hair treatment they called shampoo.
* Yoga: Yoga as a physical, mental, and spiritual practice originated in ancient India.
Weapons
* ASMI, Indian submachine gun which means "pride, self respect and hard work", was first showcased in January 2021, and developed over the course of four months by Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Bansod. 3D printing was utilized to make parts of the gun
* Catapult by Ajatashatru in Magadha,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.Singh, Upinder (2016), ''A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century'', Pearson PLC,
*Mysorean rockets: One of the first iron-cased and metal-cylinder rockets were deployed by Tipu Sultan's army, ruler of the South Indian Kingdom of Mysore, and that of his father Hyder Ali, in the 1780s. He successfully used these iron-cased rockets against the larger forces of the British East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. The Mysore Rockets of this period were much more advanced than what the British had seen, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes for holding the propellant; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missile (up to 2 km range). After Tipu's eventual defeat in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War and the capture of the Mysore iron rockets, they were influential in British rocket development, inspiring the Congreve rocket, and were soon put into use in the Napoleonic Wars.
* Scythed chariot by Ajatashatru in Magadha,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
Indigenisation and improvements
* Digital Rupee (e₹) or eINR or E-Rupee is a tokenised digital version of the Indian Rupee, to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Digital Rupee is using blockchain distributed-ledger technology.Digital rupee users to hit 50,000 by Jan-end on better acceptance.
* Unified Payments Interface is an instant real-time payment system developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) facilitating inter-bank peer-to-peer (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions.UPI doesn't needs Internet connection for financial transactions and card-less ATM transactions can also occur using UPI.
* Optical fiber, Fibre optics: Named as one of the 7 'Unsung Heroes' by Fortune Magazine, Narinder Singh Kapany, Dr. Narinder Singh Kapany, is widely recognised as the 'Father of Fibre Optics' for his pioneering work in developing commercial applications for fibre optic technology.
* CNG car/vehicle, Bajaj Auto launched the first 'commercial' lot of its CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) autorickshaws in Delhi on 29 May 2000.
* Proto-writing: The Indus script is a symbol system that emerged during the end of the 4th millennium BC in the
Indus Valley civilization
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900&n ...
.
* India ink: Known in Asia since the third millennia BCE, and used in India since at least the 4th century BCE. ''Masi'', an early ink in India was an admixture of several chemical components.,Banerji, page 673 with the carbon black from which India ink is produced obtained by burning bones, tar, pitch, and other substances.Gottsegen, page 30.Smith, J. A. (1992), page 23 Documents dating to the 3rd century CE, written in Kharosthi, with ink have been unearthed in East Turkestan, Xinjiang. The practice of writing with ink and a sharp pointed needle was common in ancient South India. Several Jain sutras in India were compiled in ink.
Discoveries
* Indigo die: Indigo, a blue pigment and a dye, was used in India, which was also the earliest major centre for its production and processing.Kriger & Connah (2006), page 120 The ''Indigofera tinctoria'' variety of Indigo was domesticated in India. Indigo, used as a dye, made its way to the ancient Greece, Greeks and the Ancient Rome, Romans via various trade routes, and was valued as a luxury product.
* Jute, Jute cultivation: Jute has been cultivated in India since ancient times. Raw jute was exported to the western world, where it was used to make ropes and cordage.Encyclopædia Britannica (2008). ''jute''. The Indian jute industry, in turn, was modernised during the British Raj in India. The region of Bengal was the major centre for Jute cultivation, and remained so before the modernisation of India's jute industry in 1855, when Kolkata became a centre for jute processing in India.
*Power Series: The Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics or the Kerala school was a school of mathematics and astronomy founded by Madhava of Sangamagrama in Tirur, Malappuram, Kerala, India. 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). However, they did not formulate a systematic theory of differentiation and integration.
* Sugar, Sugar refinement: Sugarcane was originally from tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia, with different species originating in India, and ''S. edule'' and ''S. officinarum'' from New Guinea. The process of producing crystallised sugar from sugarcane was discovered by the time of the Gupta dynasty, Imperial Guptas,Adas (2001), page 311 and the earliest reference of candied sugar comes from India.Kieschnick (2003) The process was soon transmitted to China with travelling Buddhist monks. Chinese documents confirm at least two missions to India, initiated in 647 CE, for obtaining technology for sugar-refining.Kieschnick (2003), page 258 Each mission returned with results on refining sugar.
Mathematics
* 0 (number), Zero: Zero and its operation are first defined by (Hindu astronomer and mathematician) Brahmagupta in 628. The Babylonians used a space, and later a zero glyph, in their written Sexagesimal system, to signify the 'absent', the Olmecs used a positional zero glyph in their Vigesimal system, the Greeks, from Ptolemy's Almagest, in a Sexagesimal system. The Chinese used a blank, in the written form of their decimal Counting rods system. A dot, rather than a blank, was first seen to denote zero, in a decimal system, in the Bakhshali manuscript. The usage of the zero in the Bakhshali manuscript was dated from between 3rd and 4th centuries, making it the earliest known usage of a written zero, in a decimal place value system.
* Quadratic equations: Indian mathematician derived the quadratic formula used for solving quadratic equations.
* AKS primality test: The AKS primality test is a deterministic algorithm, deterministic primality test, primality-proving algorithm created and published by three Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur computer scientists, Manindra Agrawal, Neeraj Kayal, and Nitin Saxena on 6 August 2002 in a paper title ''PRIMES is in P'' Crandall & Pomerance (2005), pages 200201 Commenting on the impact of this discovery, Paul Leyland noted: "One reason for the excitement within the mathematical community is not only does this algorithm settle a long-standing problem, it also does so in a brilliantly simple manner. Everyone is now wondering what else has been similarly overlooked".Crandall & Papadopoulos (2003), page 2
* Finite Difference Interpolation: The Indian mathematician Brahmagupta presented what is possibly the first instance of finite difference interpolation around 665 CE.
* Algebra, Algebraic abbreviations: The mathematician Brahmagupta had begun using abbreviations for unknowns by the 7th century. He employed abbreviations for multiple unknowns occurring in one complex problem. Brahmagupta also used abbreviations for square roots and cube roots.
*Seshadri constant: In algebraic geometry, a Seshadri constant is an invariant of an ample line bundle L at a point P on an algebraic variety.The name is in honour of the Indian mathematician C. S. Seshadri.
* Basu's theorem: The Basu's theorem, a result of Debabrata Basu (1955) states that any complete sufficient statistic is independent of any ancillary statistic.Nitis (2000), page 325Boos & Oliver (1998)
*Rolle's theorem: Bhāskara II is credited with knowledge of Rolle's theorem although it is named after Michel Rolle who described with insufficient proof and was later proved by Cauchy.
* Kosambi–Karhunen–Loève theorem, Kosambi-Karhunen-Loève theorem (also known as the Karhunen–Loève theorem) The Kosambi-Karhunen-Loève theorem is a representation of a stochastic process as an infinite linear combination of orthogonal functions, analogous to a Fourier series representation of a function on a bounded interval. Stochastic processes given by infinite series of this form were first considered by Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi..
* Brahmagupta–Fibonacci identity, Brahmagupta formula, Brahmagupta matrix, and Brahmagupta theorem: Discovered by the Indian mathematician, Brahmagupta (598668 CE).Plofker (2007), pp. 419436Joseph (2000), page 306
* Chakravala method: The Chakravala method, a cyclic algorithm to solve Indeterminate equation, indeterminate quadratic equations is commonly attributed to Bhāskara II, (c. 1114 – 1185 CE)"Bhaskaracharya II". ''Students' Encyclopedia India'' (2000). (Volume 1: Adb Allah ibn al Abbas – Cypress). p. 200. Kumar (2004), page 23Singh, Manpal (2005), page 385 although some attribute it to Jayadeva (mathematician), Jayadeva (c. 950~1000 CE).Plofker (2007), page 474 Jayadeva pointed out that Brahmagupta's approach to solving equations of this type would yield infinitely large number of solutions, to which he then described a general method of solving such equations.Goonatilake (1998), page 127 – 128 Jayadeva's method was later refined by Bhāskara II in his ''Bijaganita'' treatise to be known as the Chakravala method, ''chakra'' (derived from ''cakraṃ'' चक्रं) meaning 'wheel' in
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
, relevant to the cyclic nature of the algorithm.Baber (1996), page 34 With reference to the Chakravala method, E. O. Selenuis held that no European performances at the time of Bhāskara, nor much later, came up to its marvellous height of mathematical complexity.Rao K. A. (2000), page 252
*Magical Indian Math discovery: Numbers 495 and 6174. The Indian mathematician Dattaraya Ramchandra Kaprekar discovered the number 6174 is reached after repeatedly subtracting the smallest number from the largest number that can be formed from any four digits not all the same. The number 495 is similarly reached for three digits number.
* Hindu-Arabic numerals, Hindu number system: With decimal place-value and a symbol for zero, this system was the ancestor of the widely used Arabic numeral system. It was developed in the Indian subcontinent between the 1st and 6th centuries CE.
*Decimal mark: The practice of using a decimal mark is derived from the decimal, decimal system used in Indian mathematics.
* Fibonacci numbers: This sequence was first described by Virahanka (c. 700 CE), Gopāla (c. 1135), and Hemachandra (c. 1150), as an outgrowth of the earlier writings on Sanskrit prosody by Pingala (c. 200 BCE).
* Law of signs in multiplication: The earliest use of notation for negative numbers, as subtrahend, is credited by scholars to the Chinese, dating back to the 2nd century BCE.Smith (1958), pp. 257258 Like the Chinese, the Indians used negative numbers as subtrahend, but were the first to establish the "law of signs" with regards to the multiplication of positive and negative numbers, which did not appear in Chinese texts until 1299. Indian mathematicians were aware of negative numbers by the 7th century, and their role in mathematical problems of debt was understood.Bourbaki (1998), page 49 Mostly consistent and correct rules for working with negative numbers were formulated,Britannica Concise Encyclopedia (2007). ''algebra'' and the diffusion of these rules led the Arab intermediaries to pass it on to Europe., for example (+)×(-)=(-),(-)×(-)=(+) etc.
* Madhava series: The infinite series for π and for the trigonometric sine, cosine, and arctangent is now attributed to Madhava of Sangamagrama (c. 1340 – 1425) and his Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics.Goonatilake (1998), page 37Amma (1999), pp. 182183 He made use of the series expansion of to obtain an infinite series expression 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.Roy (1990) They used the improved series to derive a rational expression, for π correct up to eleven decimal places, ''i.e.'' .Borwein (2004), page 107Plofker (2007), page 481 Madhava of Sangamagrama and his successors at the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics used geometric methods to derive large sum approximations for sine, cosine, and arctangent. They found a number of special cases of series later derived by Brook Taylor series. They also found the second-order Taylor approximations for these functions, and the third-order Taylor approximation for sine.Bressoud (2002)Plofker (2001)Katz (1995)
* Pascal's triangle: Described in the 6th century CE by Varahamihira and in the 10th century by Halayudha, commenting on an obscure reference by Pingala (the author of an earlier work on prosody) to the "Meru-prastaara", or the "Staircase of Mount Meru", in relation to binomial coefficients. (It was also independently discovered in the 10th or 11th century in Persia and China.)
* Pell's equation, integral solution for: About a thousand years before John Pell (mathematician), Pell's time, Indian scholar Brahmagupta (598668 CE) was able to find integral solutions to ''vargaprakṛiti'' (Pell's equation):Puttaswamy (2000), page 416Stillwell (2004), pages 7273 where ''N'' is a non-square integer, in his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, ''Brâhma-sphuṭa-siddhânta'' treatise.
* Ramanujan theta function, Ramanujan prime, Ramanujan summation, Ramanujan graph and Ramanujan's sum: Discovered by the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan in the early 20th century.
* Shrikhande graph: Graph (discrete mathematics), Graph invented by the Indian mathematician S.S. Shrikhande in 1959.
* Sign convention: Symbols, signs and mathematical notation were employed in an early form in India by the 6th century when the mathematician-astronomer Aryabhata recommended the use of letters to represent unknown quantities.Bell (1992), page 96 By the 7th century Brahmagupta had already begun using abbreviations for unknowns, even for multiple unknowns occurring in one complex problem. Brahmagupta also managed to use abbreviations for square roots and cube roots. By the 7th century fractions were written in a manner similar to the modern times, except for the bar separating the numerator and the denominator. A dot symbol for negative numbers was also employed. The Bakhshali Manuscript displays a cross, much like the modern '+' sign, except that it symbolised subtraction when written just after the number affected. The '=' sign for equality did not exist. Indian mathematics was transmitted to the Islamic world where this notation was seldom accepted initially and the scribes continued to write mathematics in full and without symbols.Bell (1992), page 97
*Modern elementary arithmetic: Modum indorum or the method of the Indians for arithmetic operations was popularised by Al-Khwarizmi and Al-Kindi by means of their respective works such as in Al-Khwarizmi's on the Calculation with Hindu Numerals (ca. 825), On the Use of the Indian Numerals (ca. 830) as early as the 8th and 9th centuries.They, amongst other works, contributed to the diffusion of the Indian system of arithmetic in the Middle-East and the West.The significance of the development of the positional number system is described by the French mathematician Pierre Simon Laplace (17491827) who wrote:
"It is India that gave us the ingenuous method of expressing all numbers by the means of ten symbols, each symbol receiving a value of position, as well as an absolute value; a profound and important idea which appears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit, but its very simplicity, the great ease which it has lent to all computations, puts our arithmetic in the first rank of useful inventions, and we shall appreciate the grandeur of this achievement when we remember that it escaped the genius of Archimedes and Apollonius, two of the greatest minds produced by antiquity."
* Trigonometric functions : The Trigonometry, trigonometric functions ''sine'' and ''versine'' originated in Indian astronomy, adapted from the full-chord Greek versions (to the modern half-chord versions). They were described in detail by Aryabhata in the late 5th century, but were likely developed earlier in the Pancha-Siddhantika, Siddhantas, astronomical treatises of the 3rd or 4th century.Pingree (2003): J. J. O'Connor and E.F. Robertson (1996) Trigonometric functions . MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive Later, the 6th-century astronomer Varahamihira discovered a few basic trigonometric formulas and identities, such as sin^2(x) + cos^2(x) = 1.
*Formal systems: Pāṇini, Panini is credited with the creation of the first Formal System in the world.
Philosophy
* Catuṣkoṭi, Catuskoti (Tetralemma): The four-cornered system of logical argumentation with a suite of four distinct functions that refers to a logical proposition P, with four possibilities that can arise. The tetralemma has many Epistemology, logico-epistemological applications and has been made ample use of by the Indian philosopher Nagarjuna, Nāgarjuna in the Madhyamaka school. The tetralemma also features prominently in the Greek Skepticism, skepticist school of Pyrrhonism, the teachings of which are based on Buddhism. The founder of the Pyrrhonist school lived in India for 18 months and likely learned the language, which allowed him to carry these teachings to Greece.
Medicine
* Dentistry#History, Ancient Dentistry: The Indus Valley civilisation (IVC) has yielded evidence of dentistry being practised as far back as 7000 BCE. An IVC site in Mehrgarh indicates that this form of dentistry involved curing tooth related disorders with bow drills operated, perhaps, by skilled bead crafters
*Angina pectoris: The condition was named "hritshoola" in ancient India and was described by Sushruta (6th century BCE).
* Ayurveda, Ayurvedic and Siddha medicine: Ayurveda and Siddha are ancient systems of medicine practised in South Asia. Ayurvedic ideas can be found in the Hindu text (mid-first millennium BCE). Ayurveda has evolved over thousands of years, and is still practised today. In an internationalised form, it can be thought of as a complementary and alternative medicine. In village settings, away from urban centres, it is simply "medicine." The Sanskrit word आयुर्वेदः (''āyur-vedaḥ'') means "knowledge ''(veda'') for longevity (''āyur'')". Siddha medicine is mostly prevalent in South India, and is transmitted in Tamil, not Sanskrit, texts. Herbs and minerals are basic raw materials of the Siddha therapeutic system whose origins may be dated to the early centuries CE.
* Cataract surgery: Cataract surgery was known to the Indian physician Sushruta (6th century BCE). In India, cataract surgery was performed with a special tool called the ''Jabamukhi Salaka'', a curved needle used to loosen the lens and push the cataract out of the 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. Greek philosophers and scientists traveled to India where these surgeries were performed by physicians.Finger (2001), page 66 The removal of cataract by surgery was also introduced into China from India.
* Leprosy cure: Kearns & Nash (2008) state that the first mention of leprosy is described in the Indian medical treatise ''Sushruta Samhita'' (6th century BCE).Kearns & Nash (2008) However, ''The Oxford Illustrated Companion to Medicine'' holds that the mention of leprosy, as well as ritualistic cures for it, were described in the ''Atharva-veda'' (15001200 BCE), written before the ''Sushruta Samhita''.
* Calculus (medicine), Lithiasis treatment: The earliest operation for treating lithiasis, or the formations of stones in the body, is also given in the ''Sushruta Samhita'' (6th century BCE). The operation involved exposure and going up through the floor of the bladder.Lock; Last & Dunea (2001), page 836
* Visceral leishmaniasis, Visceral leishmaniasis, treatment of: The Indian (Bengali) medical practitioner Upendranath Brahmachari (19 December 1873 – 6 February 1946) was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929 for his discovery of 'ureastibamine (antimony, antimonial Chemical compound, compound for treatment of kala azar) and a new disease, post-kalaazar dermal leishmanoid.'Nobel Foundation (2008) ''The Nomination Database for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 19011951'' /ref> Brahmachari's cure for Visceral leishmaniasis was the urea salt of para-amino-phenyl stibnic acid which he called Urea Stibamine. Vigyan Prasar: Government of India Following the discovery of Urea Stibamine, Visceral leishmaniasis was largely eradicated from the world, except for some underdeveloped regions.
* Ganja was used as herb for ayurverdic medicine development for last 2,000 years. The Sushruta Samhita, an ancient medical treatise, recommends cannabis plant extract for treating respiratory ailments and diarrhoea.
Mining
* Diamond (gemstone), Diamond mining and diamond tools: Diamonds were first recognised and mined in central India,Hershey (2004), page 22Malkin (1996), page 12 where significant alluvial deposits of the stone could then be found along the rivers Penner River, Penner, Krishna River, Krishna and Godavari River, Godavari. It is unclear when diamonds were first mined in India, although estimated to be at least 5,000 years ago.Hershey (2004), pages 3 & 23 India remained the world's only source of diamonds until the discovery of diamonds in Brazil in the 18th century.Thomas (2007), page 46Read (2005), page 17Lee, page 685 Golconda served as an important centre for diamonds in central India.Wenk, pages 535539 Diamonds then were exported to other parts of the world, including Europe. Early references to diamonds in India come from
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
Arthashastra
The ''Arthashastra'' ( sa, अर्थशास्त्रम्, ) is an Ancient Indian Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, political science, economic policy and military strategy. Kautilya, also identified as Vishnugupta and Chanakya, is ...
'' of Kautilya mentions diamond trade in India. Buddhism, Buddhist works dating from the 4th century BCE mention it as a well-known and precious stone but don't mention the details of diamond cutting. Another Indian description written at the beginning of the 3rd century describes strength, regularity, brilliance, ability to scratch metals, and good refractive properties as the desirable qualities of a diamond.Dickinson, pages 13 A Chinese work from the 3rd century BCE mentions: "Foreigners wear it [diamond] in the belief that it can ward off evil influences". The Chinese, who did not find diamonds in their country, initially used diamonds as a "jade cutting knife" instead of as a jewel.
* Zinc mining and Zinc#Ancient use, medicinal zinc: Zinc was first smelted from zinc ore in India. Zinc mines of Zawar, near Udaipur, Rajasthan, were active during early Christian era. There are references of medicinal uses of zinc in the Charaka Samhita (300 BCE).Craddock (1983) The Rasaratna Samuccaya which dates back to the Tantric period () 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.Biswas (1986), page 11 India was to melt the first derived from a long experience of the old alchemy zinc by the distillation process, an advanced technique. The ancient Persians had also tried to reduce zinc oxide in an open stove, but had failed. Zawar in Tiri valley of Rajasthan is the first known old zinc smelting site in the world. The distillation technique of zinc production dates back to the 12th century CE and is an important contribution of India in the world of science.
Sciences
*Early concept of Gravity: Brahmagupta described gravity as an attractive force and used the term ''gurutvākarṣaṇ'' for gravity.(He derived the same concept that the ancient Greeks did it 1000 years before but later debunked by Galileo) Aryabhata advocated a Heliocentrism, heliocentric model of solar system, where the planets spin on their axes and follow orbits around the Sun, while the moon revolving around the earth in epicycles.
(it was already told by Greek philosopher Aristarchus of Samos )
* Ammonium nitrite, Ammonium nitrite, synthesis in pure form: Prafulla Chandra Roy synthesised NH4NO2 in its pure form, and became the first scientist to have done so. Prior to Ray's synthesis of Ammonium nitrite it was thought that the compound undergoes rapid thermal decomposition releasing nitrogen and water in the process.
* Ashtekar variables: In theoretical physics, Ashtekar (new) variables, named after Abhay Ashtekar who invented them, represent an unusual way to rewrite the metric on the three-dimensional spatial slices in terms of a SU(2) gauge field and its complementary variable. Ashtekar variables are the key building block of loop quantum gravity.
* Bhatnagar-Mathur Magnetic Interference Balance: Invented jointly by Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar and K.N. Mathur in 1928, the so-called 'Bhatnagar-Mathur Magnetic Interference Balance' was a modern instrument used for measuring various magnetic properties. The first appearance of this instrument in Europe was at a Royal Society exhibition in London, where it was later marketed by British firm Messers Adam Hilger and Co, London.''Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar'' . Vigyan Prasar: Government of India.
* Bhabha scattering: In 1935, Indian nuclear physicist Homi J. Bhabha published a paper in the ''Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series A'', in which he performed the first calculation to determine the cross section of electron-positron scattering. Electron-positron scattering was later named Bhabha scattering, in honour of his contributions in the field.Penney (1967), page 39
* Bose–Einstein statistics, Bose–Einstein condensate, condensate: On 4 June 1924 the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose mailed a short manuscript to Albert Einstein entitle ''Planck's Law and the Light Quantum Hypothesis'' seeking Einstein's influence to get it published after it was rejected by the prestigious journal ''Philosophical Magazine''.Rigden (2005), pages 143144 The paper introduced what is today called ''Bose statistics'', which showed how it could be used to derive the Planck blackbody spectrum from the assumption that light was made of photons.Fraser (2006), page 238 Einstein, recognizing the importance of the paper translated it into German himself and submitted it on Bose's behalf to the prestigious ''Zeitschrift für Physik''. Einstein later applied Bose's principles on particles with mass and quickly predicted the ''Bose-Einstein condensate''.Dauxois & Peyrard (2006), pages 297298
*Boson: The name boson was coined by Paul Dirac to commemorate the contribution of the Indian people, Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose. In quantum mechanics, a boson (, ) is a particle that follows Bose–Einstein statistics. Bosons make up one of the two classes of elementary particle, particles, the other being fermions.Carroll, Sean (2007) ''Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe'', Guidebook Part 2 p. 43, The Teaching Company, "...boson: A force-carrying particle, as opposed to a matter particle (fermion). Bosons can be piled on top of each other without limit. Examples include photons, gluons, gravitons, weak bosons, and the Higgs boson. The spin of a boson is always an integer, such as 0, 1, 2, and so on..."
* Braunstein-Ghosh-Severini Entropy: This modelling of entropy using network theory is used in the analysis of quantum gravity and is named after Sibasish Ghosh and his teammates, Samuel L. Braunstein and Simone Severini.
* Chandrasekhar limit and Chandrasekhar number: Discovered by and named after Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his work on stellar structure and stellar evolution. Subrrahmanyan Chandrasekhar discovered the calculation used to determine the future of what would happen to a dying star. If the star's mass is less than the Chandrasekhar Limit it will shrink to become a white dwarf, and if it is great the star will explode, becoming a supernova
* Galena, Galena, applied use in electronics of: Bengali scientist Sir
Jagadish Chandra Bose
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose
(;, ; 30 November 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a biologist, physicist, Botany, botanist and an early writer of science fiction. He was a pioneer in the investigation of radio microwave optics, made significant contr ...
effectively used Galena crystals for constructing radio receivers."Indian Scientists" (November 2004), Science Popularisation and Public Outreach Committee, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. The Galena receivers of Bose were used to receive signals consisting of shortwave, Electromagnetic spectrum#Visible radiation .28light.29, white light and ultraviolet light. In 1904 Bose patented the use of Galena Detector which he called ''Point Contact Diode using Galena''.Sarkar (2006), page 94
* Mahalanobis distance: Introduced in 1936 by the Indian (Bengali) statistician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (29 June 1893 – 28 June 1972), this distance measure, based upon the correlation between variables, is used to identify and analyze differing pattern with respect to one base.
* Nitrite, Mercurous Nitrite: The compound mercurous nitrite was discovered in 1896 by the Bengali chemist Prafulla Chandra Roy, who published his findings in the ''Asiatic Society, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal''."Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray" , Viyan Prasar, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. The discovery contributed as a base for significant future research in the field of chemistry.
* Ramachandran plot, Ramachandran map, and Ramachandran angles: The Ramachandran plot and Ramachandran map were developed by Gopalasamudram Narayana Iyer Ramachandran, who published his results in the ''Journal of Molecular Biology'' in 1963. He also developed the Ramachandran angles, which serve as a convenient tool for communication, representation, and various kinds of data analysis.Ramakrishnan (2001)
* Raman effect: The Encyclopædia Britannica (2008) reports: "change in the wavelength of light that occurs when a light beam is deflected by molecules. The phenomenon is named for Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, who discovered it in 1928. When a beam of light traverses a dust-free, transparent sample of a chemical compound, a small fraction of the light emerges in directions other than that of the incident (incoming) beam. Most of this scattered light is of unchanged wavelength. A small part, however, has wavelengths different from that of the incident light; its presence is a result of the Raman effect."
* Raychaudhuri equation: Discovered by the Bengali people, Bengali physicist Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri in 1954. This was a key ingredient of the Penrose-Hawking singularity theorems of general relativity.
* Periodicity in Nuclear Properties: A sharp pattern is discovered by an Indian researcher regarding the nuclear properties of chemical elements. The remarkable deviations are noticed near the magic numbers.
*Process of formation of the E layer of the ionosphere and night sky luminiscence: Discovered by the Indian physicist, Sisir Kumar Mitra.
Space
*Lunar water: Although the presence of water ice on the moon has been conjectured by various scientists since the 1960s, inconclusive evidence of free water ice had also been identified. The first incontrovertible evidence of water on the moon was provided by the payload Chace carried by the Moon Impact Probe released by Chandrayaan-1 in 2009, confirmed and established by NASA.
*Earth's orbit (Sidereal year): The Hindu cosmological time cycles explained in the ''Surya Siddhanta'' (c.600 CE), give the average length of the sidereal year (the length of the Earth's revolution around the Sun) as 365.2563627 days, which is only a negligible 1.4 seconds longer than the modern value of 365.256363004 days. This calculation was the most accurate estimate for the length of the sidereal year anywhere in the world for over a thousand years.
* Periodic comet, Periodicity of comets: Indian astronomers by the 6th century believed that comets were celestial bodies that re-appeared periodically. This was the view expressed in the 6th century by the astronomers Varahamihira and Bhadrabahu, and the 10th-century astronomer Bhattotpala listed the names and estimated periods of certain comets, but it is unfortunately not known how these figures were calculated or how accurate they were.
* Saha ionisation equation: The Saha equation, derived by the Bengali scientist Meghnad Saha (6 October 1893 – 16 February 1956) in 1920, conceptualises ionisations in context of stellar atmospheres.
*Quasi-normal modes of black holes: C. V. Vishveshwara discovered the quasi-normal modes of black holes. These modes of black hole vibrations are one of the main targets of observation using the gravitational wave detector.
Innovations
* Flush deck: The flushed deck design was introduced with rice ships built in Bengal Subah, Mughal India (modern Bangladesh), resulting in hulls that were stronger and less prone to leak than the structurally weak hulls of stepped deck design.This was a key innovation in shipbuilding at the time.
* History of ferrous metallurgy, Iron working: Iron works were developed in India, around the same time as, but independently of, Anatolia and the Caucasus. Archaeological sites in India, such as Malhar, Dadupur, Raja Nala Ka Tila and Lahuradewa in present-day Uttar Pradesh show iron implements in the period between 1800 BCE—1200 BCE. Early iron objects found in India can be dated to 1400 BCE by employing the method of radiocarbon dating. Nail (fastener), Spikes, knife, knives, daggers, arrow-heads, bowl (vessel), bowls, spoons, saucepans, axes, chisels, tongs, door fittings etc. ranging from 600 BCE to 200 BCE have been discovered from several archaeological sites of India.Marco Ceccarelli (2000). ''International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms: Proceedings HMM Symposium''. Springer. . pp 218 Some scholars believe that by the early 13th century BCE, iron smelting was practised on a bigger scale in India, suggesting that the date the technology's inception may be placed earlier. In Southern India (present day Mysore) iron appeared as early as 11th to 12th centuries BCE; these developments were too early for any significant close contact with the northwest of the country.I. M. Drakonoff (1991). ''Early Antiquity''. University of Chicago Press. . pp 372 In the time of
Chandragupta II
Chandragupta II (r.c. 376-415), also known by his title Vikramaditya, as well as Chandragupta Vikramaditya, was the third ruler of the Gupta Empire in India, and was one of the most powerful emperors of the Gupta dynasty.
Chandragupta continue ...
Vikramaditya (375413 CE), corrosion-resistant iron was used to erect the
Iron pillar of Delhi
The iron pillar of Delhi is a structure high with a diameter that was constructed by Chandragupta II (reigned c. 375–415 AD), and now stands in the Qutb complex at Mehrauli in Delhi, India.Finbarr Barry Flood, 2003"Pillar, palimpsets, and pr ...
, which has withstood corrosion for over 1,600 years.
Computer science and programming
*File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and data connections between the client and the server. Abhay Bhushan is the author of the File Transfer Protocol (which he started working on while he was a student at IIT-Kanpur) and the early versions of email protocols
*Kosaraju's algorithm is a linear time algorithm to find the strongly connected components of a directed graph. Aho, Hopcroft and Ullman credit it to S. Rao Kosaraju and Micha Sharir. Kosaraju suggested it in 1978.
*Simputer: The Simputer (acronym for "simple, inexpensive and multilingual people's computer") is a self-contained, open hardware handheld computer, designed for use in environments where computing devices such as personal computers are deemed inconvenient. It was developed in 1999 by 7 scientists of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, led by Dr. Swami Manohar in collaboration with Encore India, a company based in Bangalore. Originally envisaged to bring internet to the masses of India, the Simputer and its derivatives are today widely utilised by governments of several Indian states as part of their e-governance drive, the Indian Army, as well as by other public and private organisations
*Backus-naur form: In computer science, Backus–Naur form or Backus normal form (BNF) or Panini Backus form is a metasyntax, notation technique for context-free grammars, often used to describe the Syntax (programming languages), syntax of Formal language#Programming languages, languages used in computing, such as computer
programming language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language.
The description of a programming ...
s, document formats, instruction sets and communication protocols. They are applied wherever exact descriptions of languages are needed: for instance, in official language specifications, in manuals, and in textbooks on programming language theory.The idea of describing the structure of language using rewriting rules can be traced back to at least the work of Pāṇini (who lived sometime between the 7th and 4th century BCE). The name ''Pāṇini Backus form'' has also been suggested in view of the fact that the expansion ''Backus normal form'' may not be accurate, and that Pāṇini had independently developed a similar notation earlier. His notation to describe
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
word structure notation is equivalent in power to that of Backus and has many similar properties.
Linguistics
*Formal grammar: In his treatise Aṣṭādhyāyī, Astadhyayi, Pāṇini, Panini gives formal production rules and definitions to describe the formal grammar of
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
. In formal language, formal language theory, a grammar (when the context is not given, often called a formal grammar for clarity) is a set of Production (computer science), production rules for String (computer science), strings in a formal language. The rules describe how to form strings from the language's Alphabet (computer science), alphabet that are valid according to the language's syntax (programming languages), syntax. A grammar does not describe the semantics, meaning of the strings or what can be done with them in whatever context—only their form.
Metrology
*Standardisation: The oldest applications and evidence of standardisation come from the Indus Valley Civilisation in the 5th millennium BCE characterised by the existence of weights in various standards and categories as well as the Indus merchants usage of a centralised weight and measure system. Small weights were used to measure luxury goods, and larger weights were used for buying bulkier items, such as food grains etc.Kenoyer, 265 The weights and measures of the Indus civilisation also reached Persia and Central Asia, where they were further modified.In the third millennium BCE the Indus measuring system was further developed in the ancient regions of Iran and Afghanistan – Iwata, 2254.
A total of 558 weights were excavated from Mohenjodaro, Harappa, and Chanhudaro, Chanhu-daro, not including defective weights. They did not find statistically significant differences between weights that were excavated from five different layers, each about 1.5 m in thickness. This was evidence that strong control existed for at least a 500-year period. The 13.7-g weight seems to be one of the units used in the Indus valley. The notation was based on the Binary numeral system, binary and decimal systems. 83% of the weights which were excavated from the above three cities were cubic, and 68% were made of chert.Iwata2254
*Technical standards: Technical standards were being applied and used in the Indus Valley civilisation since the 5th millennium BCE to enable gauging devices to be effectively used in angular measurement and measurement in construction.Baber, 23 Uniform units of length were used in the planning and construction of towns such as
Lothal
Lothal () was one of the southernmost sites of the ancient Indus Valley civilisation, located in the Bhāl region of the modern state of Gujarāt. Construction of the city is believed to have begun around 2200 BCE.
Archaeological Survey of ...
, Surkotada, Kalibangan,
Dholavira
Dholavira ( gu, ધોળાવીરા) is an archaeological site at Khadirbet in Bhachau Taluka of Kutch District, in the state of Gujarat in western India, which has taken its name from a modern-day village south of it. This village is f ...
,
Harappa
Harappa (; Urdu/ pnb, ) is an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about west of Sahiwal. The Bronze Age Harappan civilisation, now more often called the Indus Valley Civilisation, is named after the site, which takes its name from a mode ...
, and Mohenjo-daro. The weights and measures of the Indus civilisation also reached Persia and Central Asia, where they were further modified.
Miscallenous
*Punch (drink) a mixed drink containing fruits or fruit juice that can be both alcoholic and non-alcoholic originated in the Indian subcontinent before making its way into England by passage through the East India Company.Edwards, Graham and Sue. ''The Language of Drink'', Alan Sutton Publishing, 1988. This beverage is very popular among the world with many varietal flavors and brands throughout the beverage industry.
See also
* Timeline of Indian innovation
* History of science and technology in India
* Timeline of historic inventions
References
Bibliography
* Adas, Michael (January 2001). ''Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History''. Temple University Press. .
* Addington, Larry H. (1990). ''The Patterns of War Through the Eighteenth Century'' (Illustrated edition). Indiana: Indiana University Press. .
* Alter, J. S. in "Kabaddi, a national sport of India". Dyck, Noel (2000). ''Games, Sports and Cultures''. Berg Publishers: .
* T.A. Sarasvati Amma, Amma, T. A. Sarasvati (1999) [1979]. ''Geometry in Ancient and Medieval India''. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publication. .
* Arensberg, Conrad M. & Niehoff, Arthur H. (1971). ''Introducing Social Change: A Manual for Community Development'' (second edition). New Jersey: Aldine Transaction.
* Augustyn, Frederick J. (2004). ''Dictionary of toys and games in American popular culture''. Haworth Press. .
* Azzaroli, Augusto (1985). ''An Early History of Horsemanship''. Massachusetts: Brill Academic Publishers. .
* Baber, Zaheer (1996). ''The Science of Empire: Scientific Knowledge, Civilization, and Colonial Rule in India''. State University of New York Press. .
*
* Balasubramaniam, R. (2002). ''Delhi Iron Pillar: New Insights''. Delhi: Indian Institute of Advanced Studies [University of Michigan]. .
* Banerji, Sures Chandra (1989). ''A Companion to Sanskrit Literature''. Motilal Banarsidass. .
* Barker, Dian (2003). ''Tibetan Prayer Flags''. Connections Book Publishing. .
* Barua, Pradeep (2005). ''The State at War in South Asia''. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. .
* Arthur Llewellyn Basham, Basham, A. L. (2001) [1967]. ''The Wonder That was India''. Third revised edition. New Delhi: Rupa & co. .
* Silvio Bedini, Bedini, Silvio A. (1994). ''The Trail of Time : Time Measurement with Incense in East Asia''. England: Cambridge University Press. .
* Bell, Eric Temple (1992). ''The Development of Mathematics'' (originally published in 1945). Courier Dover Publications. .
* Bell, John (2000). ''Strings, Hands, Shadows: A Modern Puppet History''. Wayne State University Press. .
* Beer, Robert (2004). ''Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs''. Serindia Publications Inc. .
* Henry Bird (chess player), Bird, Henry Edward (1893). ''Chess History and Reminiscences''. London. (Republished version by Forgotten Books). .
*
*
* Blechynden, Kathleen (1905). ''Calcutta, Past and Present''. Los Angeles: University of California.
* Bondyopadhyay, Probir K (1988). "''Sir J. C. Bose's Diode Detector Received Marconi's First Transatlantic Wireless Signal of December 1901 (The "Italian Navy Coherer" Scandal Revisited)''". Proc. IEEE, Vol. 86, No. 1, January 1988.
* Boga, Steven (1996). ''Badminton''. Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books.
*
* Borwein, Jonathan M. & Bailey, David H. (2004) ''Mathematics by Experiment: Plausible Reasoning in the 21st Century'' Massachusetts: A K Peters, Ltd.
* Bourbaki, Nicolas (1998). ''Elements of the History of Mathematics''. Berlin, Heidelberg, and New York: Springer-Verlag. .
* David Bressoud, Bressoud, David (2002), "Was Calculus Invented in India?", ''The College Mathematics Journal'' (Mathematical Association of America) 33 (1): 213
*
* Brown, W. Norman (1964). "The Indian Games of Pachisi, Chaupar, and Chausar". Expedition, 3235. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. 32 (35).
* Chamberlin, J. Edward (2007). ''Horse: How the Horse Has Shaped Civilizations''. Moscow: Olma Media Group. .
* Chandra, Anjana Motihar (2007). ''India Condensed: 5000 Years of History & Culture'' Marshall Cavendish.
*
* (Republished by National Informatics Centre, Government of India.)
* Cooke, Roger (2005). ''The History of Mathematics: A Brief Course''. New York: Wiley-Interscience. .
* Connors, Martin; Dupuis, Diane L. & Morgan, Brad (1992). ''The Olympics Factbook: A Spectator's Guide to the Winter and Summer Games''. Michigan: Visible Ink Press.
* Coppa, A. et al. 2006. Early Neolithic tradition of dentistry . ''Nature''. Volume 440. 6 April 2006.
* Craddock, P.T. et al. (1983). ''Zinc production in medieval India'', World Archaeology, vol. 15, no. 2, Industrial Archaeology.
* Crandall, R. & Papadopoulos, J. (18 March 2003). On the Implementation of AKS-Class Primality Tests
* Crandall, Richard E. & Pomerance, Carl (2005). ''Prime Numbers: A Computational Perspective'' (second edition). New York: Springer. .
*
*
* Daryaee, Touraj (2006) in "Backgammon" in ''Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia'' ed. Meri, Josef W. & Bacharach, Jere L, pp. 8889. Taylor & Francis.
* Dauxois, Thierry & Peyrard, Michel (2006). ''Physics of Solitons''. England: Cambridge University Press. .
* Davreu, Robert (1978). "Cities of Mystery: The Lost Empire of the Indus Valley". ''The World's Last Mysteries''. (second edition). Sydney: Reader's Digest.
* Dickinson, Joan Y. (2001). ''The Book of Diamonds''. Dover Publications. .
* Drewes, F. (2006). ''Grammatical Picture Generation: A Tree-based Approach''. New York: Springer.
* Will Durant, Durant, Will (1935). ''Our Oriental Heritage''. New York: Simon and Schuster.
* Dutfield, Graham (2003). ''Intellectual Property Rights and the Life Science Industries: A Twentieth Century History''. Ashgate Publishing. .
* Dwivedi, Girish & Dwivedi, Shridhar (2007) ''History of Medicine: Sushruta – the Clinician – Teacher par Excellence'' National Informatics Centre, National Informatics Centre (Government of India).
* ''Encyclopedia of Indian Archaeology'' (Volume 1). Edited by Amalananda Ghosh (1990). Massachusetts: Brill Academic Publishers. .
* Emerson, D.T. (1998). The Work of Jagdish Chandra Bose: 100 years of mm-wave research '. National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
* Emsley, John (2003). ''Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements''. England: Oxford University Press. .
* Finger, Stanley (2001). ''Origins of Neuroscience: A History of Explorations into Brain Function''. England: Oxford University Press. .
* Flegg, Graham (2002). ''Numbers: Their History and Meaning''. Courier Dover Publications. .
* Duncan Forbes (linguist), Forbes, Duncan (1860). ''The History of Chess: From the Time of the Early Invention of the Game in India Till the Period of Its Establishment in Western and Central Europe''. London: W. H. Allen & co.
*
* Fraser, Gordon (2006). ''The New Physics for the Twenty-first Century''. England: Cambridge University Press. .
* Gangopadhyaya, Mrinalkanti (1980). ''Indian Atomism: history and sources''. New Jersey: Humanities Press. .
* Geddes, Patrick (2000). ''The life and work of Sir Jagadis C. Bose''. Asian Educational Services. .
* Geyer, H. S. (2006), ''Global Regionalization: Core Peripheral Trends''. England: Edward Elgar Publishing. .
* Ghosh, Amalananda (1990). ''An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology''. Brill. .
* Ghosh, S.; Massey, Reginald; and Banerjee, Utpal Kumar (2006). ''Indian Puppets: Past, Present and Future''. Abhinav Publications. .
* Gottsegen, Mark E. (2006). ''The Painter's Handbook: A Complete Reference''. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications. .
* Goonatilake, Susantha (1998). ''Toward a Global Science: Mining Civilizational Knowledge''. Indiana: Indiana University Press. .
* Guillain, Jean-Yves (2004). ''Badminton: An Illustrated History''. Paris: Editions Publibook
* Hāṇḍā, Omacanda (1998). ''Textiles, Costumes, and Ornaments of the Western Himalaya''. Indus Publishing. .
* Hayashi, Takao (2005). ''Indian Mathematics'' in Flood, Gavin, ''The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism'', Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 616 pages, pp. 360375, 360375, .
* Hershey, J. Willard (2004). ''The Book of Diamonds: Their Curious Lore, Properties, Tests and Synthetic Manufacture 1940'' Montana: Kessinger Publishing.
* Hobson, John M. (2004). ''The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation'' (Illustrated edition). England: Cambridge University Press. .
* Hoiberg, Dale & Ramchandani, Indu (2000). ''Students' Britannica India''. Mumbai: Popular Prakashan.
* Hooper, David Vincent; Whyld, Kenneth (1992). ''The Oxford Companion to Chess''. Oxford University Press. .
* Hoover, Herbert Clark (2003). ''Georgius Agricola De Re Metallica'' Montana: Kessinger Publishing. .
* Hopkins, Donald R. (2002). ''The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in history''. University of Chicago Press. .
* Ifrah, Georges (2000). ''A Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to Computers''. New York: Wiley. .
*
* Iwata, Shigeo (2008), "Weights and Measures in the Indus Valley", ''Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures (2nd edition)'' edited by Helaine Selin, Springer, 22542255, .
* James, Jeffrey (2003). ''Bridging the Global Digital Divide''. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. .
* William Jones (philologist), Jones, William (1807). ''The Works of Sir William Jones'' (Volume 4). London.
* Joseph, George Gheverghese (2000). ''The Crest of the Peacock: The Non-European Roots of Mathematics''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. .
*
* Kamarustafa, Ahmet T. (1992). "Part 1 No. 1: Islamic Cartography 1". ''Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies''. Vol. 2 Book 1. New York: Oxford University Press US.
*
* Kearns, Susannah C.J. & Nash, June E. (2008). ''leprosy''. Encyclopædia Britannica.
* Kieschnick, John (2003). ''The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture''. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. .
* Kipfer, Barbara Ann (2000). ''Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology''. (Illustrated edition). New York: Springer. .
* Koppel, Tom (2007). ''Ebb and Flow: Tides and Life on Our Once and Future Planet''. Dundurn Press Ltd. .
* Kriger, Colleen E. & Connah, Graham (2006). ''Cloth in West African History''. Rowman Altamira. .
* Kumar, Narendra (2004). ''Science in Ancient India''. Delhi: Anmol Publications Pvt Ltd.
* Kumar, Yukteshwar (2005). ''A History of Sino-Indian Relations: 1st Century A.D. to 7th Century A.D''. New Delhi: APH Publishing. .
* Lade, Arnie & Svoboda, Robert (2000). ''Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda''. Motilal Banarsidass. .
* Lee, Sunggyu (2006). ''Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing''. CRC Press. .
* Linde, Antonius van der (1981) [1874] (in German). ''Geschichte und Literatur des Schachspiels''. Zürich: Edition Olms.
* Livingston, Morna & Beach, Milo (2002). ''Steps to Water: The Ancient Stepwells of India''. Princeton Architectural Press. .
* Lock, Stephen; Last, John M.; Dunea, George (2001). ''The Oxford Illustrated Companion to Medicine''. USA: Oxford University Press. .
* Robert Lowie, Lowie, Robert H. (2007) [1940]. ''An Introduction To Cultural Anthropology''. Masterson Press. .
* Stephen Malkin, Malkin, Stephen (1996). ''Grinding Technology: Theory and Applications of Machining with Abrasives''. Michigan: Society of Manufacturing Engineers. .
* McEvilley, Thomas (2002). ''The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies''. New York: Allworth Communications Inc. .
* McIntosh, Jane (2007). ''The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives''. Illustrated edition. California: ABC-CLIO. .
* Meri, Josef W. (2005). ''Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia''. Routledge. .
* Millar, Stuart (2004). "Using Technology: Handheld PC Bridges Digital Divide". ''World in Motion: Future, Science and Technology''. Denmark: Systime. pp. 167169.
* H. J. R. Murray, Murray, H. J. R. (1913). ''A History of Chess''. England: Oxford University Press.
* Narlikar, J. V. (2002). ''An Introduction to Cosmology''. Cambridge University Press. .
* Nejat, Karen Rhea Nemet. (1998). ''Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia''. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. .
* Nitis, Mukhopadhyay (2000). ''Probability and Statistical Inference''. Statistics: A Series of Textbooks and Monographs. 162. Florida: CRC Press USA. .
* Pacey, Arnold (1991). ''Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand-year History''. MIT Press. .
*
* Piercey, W. Douglas & Scarborough, Harold (2008). ''hospital''. Encyclopædia Britannica.
*
*
* Ploker, Kim (2007) "Mathematics in India". ''The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam: A Sourcebook'' New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
* Ponomarev, Leonid Ivanovich (1993). ''The Quantum Dice''. CRC Press. .
* Possehl, Gregory L. (2002). ''The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective''. Maryland: Rowman Altamira. .
*
* Pruthi, Raj (2004). ''Prehistory and Harappan Civilization''. New Delhi: APH Publishing Corp. .
* Purohit, Vinayak (1988). ''Arts of Transitional India Twentieth Century''. Mumbai: Popular Prakashan.
* Puttaswamy, T. K. (2000), "The Mathematical Accomplishments of Ancient Indian Mathematicians". ''Mathematics Across Cultures: The History of Non-western Mathematics''. New York: Springer Publishing.
*
* Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao, Rao, S. R. (1985). ''Lothal''. Archaeological Survey of India.
* Rao, K. Anantharama (2000). ''Vision 21st Century''. India: Vidya Publishing House [Michigan: University of Michigan].
* Read, Peter G. (2005) ''Gemmology. England'': Butterworth-Heinemann.
* Reynolds, Terry S (1983). ''Stronger Than a Hundred Men: A History of the Vertical Water Wheel''. Johns Hopkins University Press. .
* Rigden, John S. (2005). ''Einstein 1905: The Standard of Greatness''. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. .
* Robinson, Dindy & Estes, Rebecca (1996). ''World Cultures Through Art Activities''. New Hampshire: Libraries Unlimited. .
* Rodda & Ubertini (2004). ''The Basis of Civilization—water Science?''. International Association of Hydrological Science. .
* Rousselet, Louis (1875). ''India and Its Native Princes: Travels in Central India and in the Presidencies of Bombay and Bengal''. London: Chapman and Hall.
* Roy, Ranjan (1990), "Discovery of the Series Formula for by Leibniz, Gregory, and Nilakantha", ''Mathematics Magazine'' (Mathematical Association of America) 63 (5): 291306
* Saliba, George (1997). "Interfusion of Asian and Western Cultures: Islamic Civilization and Europe to 1500". ''Asia in Western and World History: A Guide for Teaching''. Edited by Ainslie Thomas Embree & Carol Gluck. New York: M.E. Sharpe. .
* Sanchez & Canton (2006). ''Microcontroller Programming: The Microchip PIC''. CRC Press. .
* Sarkar, Tapan K. etc. (2006), ''History of Wireless'', Wiley-IEEE, .
* Edward H. Schafer, Schafer, Edward H. (1963). ''The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics''. California: University of California Press. .
* Schwartzberg, Joseph E. (1992). "Part 2: South Asian Cartography: 15. Introduction to South Asian Cartography". ''The History of Cartography – Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies'' (Volume 2 Book 1). Edited by John Brian Harley, J.B. Harley and David Woodward (cartographer), David Woodward. New York: Oxford University Press USA. .
* Seiwert, Hubert Michael (2003). ''Popular Religious Movements and Heterodox Sects in Chinese History''. Massachusetts: Brill Publishers, Brill Academic Publishers. .
* Shukla, R.P. in "Laser Interferometers for Measuring Refractive Index of Transparent Materials and Testing of Optical Components", ''Laser Applications in Material Science and Industry''. 2027. Allied Publishers. .
* Singh, A. N. (1936) ''On the Use of Series in Hindu Mathematics'' Osiris 1: 606628.
* Singh, Manpal (2005). ''Modern Teaching of Mathematics''. Delhi: Anmol Publications Pvt Ltd.
* Singh, P. (1985). ''The So-called Fibonacci numbers in ancient and medieval India.'' Historia Mathematica 12(3), 22944.
* Sircar, D.C. (1996).''Indian epigraphy''. Motilal Banarsidass. .
* Sivaramakrishnan, V. M. (2001). ''Tobacco and Areca Nut''. Hyderabad (India), Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan.
* Smith, Joseph A. (1992). ''The Pen and Ink Book: Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist''. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications. .
* Smith, David E. (1958). ''History of Mathematics''. Courier Dover Publications. .
*
* Srinivasan, S. & Ranganathan, S ''Wootz Steel: An Advanced Material of the Ancient World''. Bangalore: Indian Institute of Science. * Srinivasan, S. ''Wootz crucible steel: a newly discovered production site in South India''. Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 5 (1994), pp. 4961.
* Srinivasan, S. and Griffiths, D. ''South Indian wootz: evidence for high-carbon steel from crucibles from a newly identified site and preliminary comparisons with related finds''. Material Issues in Art and Archaeology-V, Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings Series Vol. 462.
*
*
* Stein, Burton (1998). ''A History of India''. Blackwell Publishing. .
* Stepanov, Serguei A. (1999). ''Codes on Algebraic Curves''. Springer. .
* Stillwell, John (2004). ''Mathematics and its History (2 ed.)''. Berlin and New York: Springer. .
* Taguchi, Genichi & Jugulum, Rajesh (2002). ''The Mahalanobis-taguchi Strategy: A Pattern Technology System''. John Wiley and Sons. .
* Teresi, Dick; et al. (2002). ''Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science—from the Babylonians to the Maya''. New York: Simon & Schuster. .
* Thomas, Arthur (2007) ''Gemstones: Properties, Identification and Use''. London: New Holland Publishers.
* Thrusfield, Michael (2007). ''Veterinary Epidemiology''. Blackwell Publishing. .
* Upadhyaya, Bhagwat Saran (1954). ''The Ancient World''. Andhra Pradesh: The Institute of Ancient Studies Hyderabad.
* Varadpande, Manohar Laxman (2005). ''History of Indian Theatre''. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications. .
* Wenk, Hans-Rudolf; et al. (2003). ''Minerals: Their Constitution and Origin''. England: Cambridge University Press. .
*
*
* Whitelaw, Ian (2007). ''A Measure of All Things: The Story of Man and Measurement''. Macmillan Publishers, Macmillan. .
*
* Wise, Tad (2002). ''Blessings on the Wind: The Mystery & Meaning of Tibetan Prayer Flags''. Chronicle Books. .
* Wisseman, S. U. & Williams, W. S. (1994). ''Ancient Technologies and Archaeological Materials''. London: Routledge. .
* Woods, Michael & Woods, Mary B. (2000). ''Ancient Transportation: From Camels to Canals''. Minnesota: Twenty-First Century Books. .
P. K. Ray, SCIENCE, CULTURE AND DEVELOPMENT – A CONNECTED PHENOMENA, Everyman's Science Vol. * ''History of Science in South Asia'' hssa-journal.org . HSSA is a peer-reviewed, open-access, online journal for the history of science in India.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Indian Inventions And Discoveries
Science and technology in India, Inventions
Indian inventions,
Lists of inventions or discoveries
India science and technology-related lists
India history-related lists, Inventions and discoveries