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Aryabhatta knew gravity long before Newton
One of the country\'s leading scientists and former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair, propounded the theory that some shlokas in the Vedas mention the presence of water on the moon and that astronomy experts like Aryabhatta knew about gravitational force much before Isaac Newton.
Propounds ISRO ex-chief Madhavan Nair
New Delhi: One of the country's leading scientists and former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair, propounded the theory that some shlokas in the Vedas mention the presence of water on the moon and that astronomy experts like Aryabhatta knew about gravitational force much before Isaac Newton.
The 71-year-old Padma Vibhushan awardee said the Indian Vedas and ancient scriptures also had information on metallurgy, algebra, astronomy, maths, architecture and astrology way before the western world knew about them. Speaking at an international conference on the Vedas on Saturday, Nair however, added that the information in the Vedas was in a "condensed format", which he said made it difficult for modern science to accept it.
"Some shlokas in one of the Vedas say that there is water on the moon but no one believed it. Through our Chandrayaan mission, we could establish that and we were the first one to find that out," Nair said, adding that everything in the Vedas could not be understood as they were in chaste Sanskrit.
He also talked very highly about fifth century astronomer-mathematician Aryabhatta, saying, "We are really proud that Aryabhatta and Bhaskara have done extensive work on planetary work (sic) and exploration of outer planets. It was one of the challenging fields," said Nair.
"Even for Chandrayaan, the equation of Aryabhatta was used. Even the (knowledge of) gravitational field... Newton found it some 1500 years later... the knowledge existing (in our scriptures)," he added. Nair, who was ISRO chairman from 2003 to 2009, also claimed geometry was used to make calculations for building cities during the Harappan civilisation and that the Pythagorean theorem also existed since the Vedic period. Nair's comment comes against the backdrop of many BJP leaders talking about ancient Indian scriptures having scientific information, including on plastic surgery and aero-dynamics.
