Saturday, 8 February 2014

List of Indian inventions and discoveries

  • Button: Ornamental buttons—made from seashell—were used in the Indus Valley Civilization for ornamental purposes by 2000 BCE. 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."
  • Carbon pigment: The source of the carbon pigment used in India ink was India. In India, the carbon black from which India ink is produced is obtained by burning bones, tar, pitch, and other substances. Ink itself has been used in India since at least the 4th century BCE.[6] Masi, an early ink in India was an admixture of several chemical components.
  • 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 fiber by the means of a vibrating string.


  • Chaturanga: The precursor of chess originated in India during the Gupta dynasty (c. 280-550 CE).] Both the Persians and Arabsascribe the origins of the game of Chess to the Indians. The words for "chess" in Old Persian and Arabic are chatrang and shatranjrespectively — terms derived from caturaṅga in Sanskrit.which literally means an army of four divisions or four corps. Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape. This game was introduced to the Near East from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education of Persian nobility. Buddhist pilgrims, Silk Road traders and others carried it to the Far Eastwhere 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 and the expanding Arabian empire. Muslims carried Shatranj to North Africa, Sicily, and Spain by the 10th century where it took its final modern form of chess.
  • Crucible steel: Perhaps as early as 300 BCE—although certainly by 200 CE—high quality steel was being produced in southern India also 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. The first crucible steel was the wootz steel that originated in India before the beginning of the common era. Archaeological evidence suggests that this manufacturing process was already in existence in South India well before the Christian era.
Cotton being dyed manually in contemporary India.
  • Incense clock: Although popularly associated with China the incense clock is believed to have originated in India, at least in its fundamental form if not function. Early incense clocks found in China between the 6th and 8th centuries CE—the period it appeared in China all seem to have Devanāgarīcarvings on them instead of Chinese seal characters.
  • 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. During the British Raj the British officers in India performed calisthenic exercises with clubs to keep in for physical conditioning. From Britain the use of club swinging spread to the rest of the world.
  • Kabaddi: The game of kabaddi originated in India during prehistory. Suggestions on how it evolved into the modern form range from wrestling exercises, military drills, and collective self-defense but most authorities agree that the game existed in some form or the other in India during the period between 1500 and 400 BCE.
  • Ludo: Pachisi originated in India by the 6th century.The earliest evidence of this game in India is the depiction of boards on the caves of Ajanta.This game was played by the Mughal emperors of India; a notable example being that of Akbar, who played living Pachisi using girls from his harem. A variant of this game, called Ludo, made its way to England during the British Raj.
  • Mysorean rockets: The first iron-cased and metal-cylinder rockets were developed by Tipu Sultan, ruler of the South Indian Kingdom of Mysore, and 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.


  • Prayer flags: The Buddhist sūtras, written on cloth in India, were transmitted to other regions of the world. These sutras, written on banners, were the origin of prayer flags.
  • Prefabricated home and movable structure: The first prefabricated homes and movable structures were invented in 16th-century Mughal India byAkbar. These structures were reported by Arif Qandahari in 1579.
  • Shampoo: The word shampoo in English is derived from Hindustani chāmpo (चाँपो [tʃãːpoː]), and dates to 1762. The shampoo itself originated in the eastern regions of the Mughal Empire that ruled erstwhile India, particularly in the Nawab of Bengal where it was introduced as a head massage, usually consisting of alkali, natural oils and fragrances. Shampoo was first introduced in Britain by a Bengali entrepreneur from Bihar named Sake Dean Mahomed, he first familiarized the shampoo in Basil Cochrane's vapour baths while working there in the early 19th century. Later, Sake Dean Mahomed together with his Irish wife, opened "Mahomed's Steam and Vapour Sea Water Medicated Baths" in Brighton, England. His baths were like Turkish baths where clients received a treatment of champi (shampooing). Very soon due to Sake Dean Mahomed fame as a bathing expert he was appointed ‘Shampooing Surgeon’ to both George IV and William IV.
  • 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. 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.
  • Snakes and ladders: Snakes and ladders originated in India as a game based on morality. 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 in 1943.
  • Stupa: The origin of the stupa can be traced to 3rd-century BCE India. It was used as a commemorative monument associated with storing sacred relics.[74] The stupa architecture was adopted in Southeast and East Asia, where it evolved into the pagoda, a Buddhist monument used for enshrining sacred relics.
  • Wootz steel: Wootz originated in India before the beginning of the common era. Wootz steel was widely exported and traded throughout ancient Europe, China, the Arab world, and became particularly famous in the Middle East, where it became known as Damascus steel. Archaeological evidence suggests that this manufacturing process was already in existence in South India well before the Christian era they also made trains what were pulled by horses under ground.

Discoveries


  • Cashmere wool: The fiber is also known as pashm or pashmina for its use in the handmade shawls of Kashmir, India. The woolen shawls made from wool in Kashmir region of India find written mention between 3rd century BCE and the 11th century CE. However, the founder of the cashmere wool industry is traditionally held to be the 15th-century ruler of Kashmir, Zayn-ul-Abidin, who employed weavers from Central Asia.
  • Indigo dye: Indigo, a blue pigment and a dye, was used in India, which was also the earliest major center for its production and processing. TheIndigofera tinctoria variety of Indigo was domesticated in India. Indigo, used as a dye, made its way to the Greeks and the Romans via various trade routes, and was valued as a luxury product.
  • Sugar refinement: Sugarcane was originally from tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. Different species likely originated in different locations with S. barberi originating in India and S. edule and S. officinarum coming from New Guinea. The process of producing crystallized sugar from sugarcane was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas, and the earliest reference of candied sugar comes from India.[98] The process was soon transmitted to China with traveling Buddhist monks. Chinese documents confirm at least two missions to India, initiated in 647 CE, for obtaining technology for sugar-refining. Each mission returned with results on refining sugar.

Mathematics

Number System0123456789Gurmukhio੧੨੩੪੫੬੭੮੯
Oriya୦୧୨୩୪୫୬୭୮୯
Bengali০১২৩৪৫৬৭৮৯
Devanagari०१२३४५६७८९
Gujarati૦૧૨૩૪૫૬૭૮૯
Tibetan༠༡༢༣༤༥༦༧༨༩
Brahmi
Telugu౦౧౨౩౪౫౬౭౮౯
Kannada೦೧೨೩೪೫೬೭೮೯
Malayalam൦൧൨൩൪൫൬൭൮൯
Tamil೦௧௨௩௪௫௬௭௮௯
Burmese၀၁၂၃၄၅၆၇၈၉
Khmer០១២៣៤៥៦៧៨៩
Thai๐๑๒๓๔๕๖๗๘๙
Lao໐໑໒໓໔໕໖໗໘໙
Balinese᭐᭑᭒᭓᭔᭕᭖᭗᭘᭙
Javanese꧐꧑꧒꧓꧔꧕꧖꧗꧘꧙


  • Finite Difference Interpolation: The Indian mathematician Brahmagupta presented what is possibly the first instance of finite difference interpolation around 665 CE.
  • 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.
  • Binary-like representation: The Sanskrit prosodist Pingala (c. 200 BC) enumerated the different possible combinations of heavy and light syllables in a poetic line, using an algorithm that was "just a trivial variant of binary-representation." However, true binary numbers were only invented in the 17th century, by Leibniz.
  • Chakravala method: The Chakravala method, a cyclic algorithm to solve indeterminate quadratic equations is commonly attributed to Bhāskara II, (c. 1114–1185 CE) although some attribute it to Jayadeva (c. 950~1000 CE). 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.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, relevant to the cyclic nature of the algorithm. 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.
  • Different infinities: By the early centuries CE, Jain mathematicians distinguished among different degrees of infinity: "infinite in one direction, infinite in two directions, infinite in area, infinite everywhere and perpetually infinite," anticipating ideas that were only pursued farther and more systematically in the 19th century, by Georg Cantor.
  • 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.
  • Zero: Indians were the first to use the zero as a symbol and in arithmetic operations, although Babylonians used zero to signify the 'absent'. In those earlier times a blank space was used to denote zero, later when it created confusion a dot was used to denote zero(could be found in Bakhshali manuscript). In 500 AD circa Aryabhata again gave a new symbol for zero (0). In the 7th century, Brahmagupta gave a new set of rules for arithmetical operations with zero.
  • 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 BC. 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.Mostly consistent and correct rules for working with negative numbers were formulated, and the diffusion of these rules led the Arab intermediaries to pass it on to Europe.
  • Proto-logarithms: By the early centuries CE, Jain mathematicians had discovered a form of the law of indices (the addition of exponents in multiplication): for instance, 2^32 * 2^64 = 2^96. In the 8th century CE, Virasena worked with the concepts of ardhaccheda, trakacheda and caturthacheda: the number of times a number could be divided by 2, 3, and 4, respectively - effectively equivalent to proto-logarithms to base 2, 3, and 4; however, it was only defined for whole numbers, and he failed to realize the full range of computational purposes.
  • 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. He made use of the series expansion of \arctan x 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.They used the improved series to derive a rational expression,104348/33215 for π correct up to eleven decimal places, i.e. 3.14159265359. Madhava of Sangamagrama and his successors at the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics used geometric methods to derive large sum approximations for sine, cosin, and arttangent. 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.
  • 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 Pell's time, Indian scholar Brahmagupta (598–668 CE) was able to find integral solutions to vargaprakṛiti (Pell's equation): \ x^{2}-Ny^{2}=1, where N is a nonsquare integer, in his Brâhma-sphuṭa-siddhânta treatise.
  • Pythagorean theorem: The first known explicit statement of the Pythagorean theorem occurs in the Baudhayana Shulba Sutra, a text on the geometry of Vedic fire-altars, compiled by the 6th century BCE.However, the theorem may have been known centuries earlier to the Babylonians (who were familiar with Pythagorean triples), and it was also independently discovered slightly later in China.
  • Quadratic formula: In the 7th century CE, Brahmagupta gave the first general formula for solving quadratic equations,nearly equivalent to the (full) quadratic formula. However, it was incomplete because he did not recognize the second solution with a negative square root.
  • 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. 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 symbolized 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.
  • Trigonometric functions (adapted from Greek): The 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 Siddhantas, astronomical treatises of the 3rd or 4th century.Later, the 6th-century astronomer Varahamihira discovered a few basic trigonometric formulas and identities, such as sin^2(x) + cos^2(x) = 1.
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