Ancient Indians knew much more

The two most astonishing numerical claims from the ancient Indians are a cyclic system of creation of the universe with a period of 8.64 billion years, although there exist longer cycles as well; and, speed of light to be 4,404 yojanas per nimesha, which is almost exactly 186,000 miles per second as per Prof Subhash Kak.

Is this just a coincidence? A mere hypothetical calculation? Well, no one has an answer. There is no answer to these questions if we rely upon only modern physics. For ancient Indians space, time, matter and consciousness, all mattered when deriving such complex equations. According to Indian traditions, reality transcends the separate categories of space, time, matter and observation. A properly trained and tuned mind could always hook on to the Brahman to obtain knowledge. It is a huge discussion anyway. There is always a connection between the outer and the inner and our comprehension of reality is possible because we are already equipped with the same.

Ancient Indian scientists had two philosophical systems at the basis of Indian Physics and metaphysics - Samkhya and Vaisheshika. These systems go back to the 3rd millennium BC. These put forth 25 basic categories together with three constituent qualities. These create the universe at the microcosmic as well as the macrocosmic levels.

There are multiple universes, cyclic universes...there are several such practices which the historians of science are not aware of or not interested in usually. What is wrong in reading such material? Paul Halpern's The Cyclical Serpent (1995) is an extraordinary book in that it places modern speculations regarding an oscillating universe within the context of the cyclic cosmology of the 'Puranas' to some context. Of course, as Prof Kak feels, even this book does define a context for the Indian ideas.

There is an Indian text called 'Yoga Vasistha' which has 29,000 verses in it and this is attributed, traditionally, attributed to Valmiki. Then we have Vedic and Puranic Cosmology to look at.

Vedas explain that the universe is infinite while defining the finite distance to the Sun. A Vedic concept, quite famous one, says if we take out infinity out of infinity, it is unchanged. It goes to prove that Vedic scholars knew the paradoxical properties of the notion of infinity.

Myth? Belief? Madness? Eh? Have a look at the hymn 17 of Yajurveda which kmaps the outer world into an altar made of bricks. This calculation next goes up to ten hundred thousand million. The Vedic people knew of a very large universe. The 'Satapatha Brahman' which could be dated back to the second millennium BC, provides an overview of some broad aspects of Vedic cosmology.

Prof Kak explains that according to the sixth chapter of the book titled " Creation of the Universe" speaks of the creation of the earth later than that of the stars. This creation itself seems to proceed under the aegis of the "Prajapati" with the emergence of 'Asva', 'Risabha', ' Aja' and Kurma' before the emergence of the earth. Visvanatha's Vidyalankara explains that these names refer to the Sun, Gemini, Capricorn and Cassiopela.

Rigveda supports Asva as the Sun. Risabha which means twin asses is defined in Nighantu as Asvinau which later usage suggests are Castor and Pollux in Gemini. In Western Astronomy the twin asses are to be found in the next constellation of Cancer as Asellus Borealis and Aselius Asutralis. Aja (goat) is identified with the constellation Capricorn. Kurma is a synonym of Kasyapa (tortoise) which is Cassiopeia, appropriately so because of its proximity to the Pole. Now, these astronomical references in the Vedic texts take us back to the 4th or 5th millennium BC or even earlier.

Schrodinger (1961) claims that the Vedic slogan "All in One and One in All" was an idea that led him to the creation of quantum mechanics (see also Moore, 1989). Even before Schr¨odinger, the idealist philosophical tradition in Europe had long been moulded by Vedic ideas. It should also be noted that many parts of the Vedic literature are still not properly understood although considerable progress has recently taken place in the study of Vedic science. It is most interesting that the books in this Indian tradition speak about the relativity of time and space in a variety of ways.

The Hindus hold the eternity of the creator to be determinable, not measurable, since it is infinite. They do not, by the word creation, understand a formation of something out of nothing. They mean by creation only the working with a piece of clay, working out various combinations and figures in it, and making such arrangements with it as will lead to certain ends and aims which are potentially in it.