List of Indian inventions and discoveries  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Related e

Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

India is known for making some important contributions to science and technology which have helped shape the modern world. An abridged list is given below.

Mathematical Discoveries/Inventions and Conceptual Inventions

• Invention of zero (0)
• Invention of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system
• Invention of the Binary numeral system
• Invention of the decimal system
• Surgery from Sushruta
• Infinity has been roughly defined in the Isha Upanishad of the Yajur Veda
• First known precise celestial calculations by Aryabhata
• Earliest known work on Linguistics by Panini
• The first detailed works on Algebra by Aryabhata, Brahmagupta and Bhāskara I
• The first known mention of the Fibonacci sequence by Pingala
• The earliest attempt to explain gravity
• Trigonometry
• Determining that the Sun is a star
• Determining the number of planets in the Solar System
• First mention of the concept of Heliocentrism by Yajnavalkya in Shatapatha Brahmana
• The concept of the Atom
• Democracy in the Mahajanapadas
• Discovering that the a year has 365 1/4 days;
• Discovered that the earth is round;
• The earth revolves around the sun;
• First to calculate the diameter of the earth
• First to calculate the diameter of the moon

Mathematics

• 800 BC: Indian mathematician Baudhayana, in his Baudhayana Sulba Sutra, discovers Pythagorean triples algebraically, finds geometric solutions of linear equations and quadratic equations of the forms ax2 = c and ax2 + bx = c, and finds two sets of positive integral solutions to a set of simultaneous Diophantine equations.
• 600 BC: Indian mathematician Apastamba, in his Apastamba Sulba Sutra, solves the general linear equation and uses simultaneous Diophantine equations with up to five unknowns.
• 100 BC: The Bakhshali Manuscript written in ancient India uses a form of algebraic notation using letters of the alphabet and other signs, and contains cubic and quartic equations, algebraic solutions of linear equations with up to five unknowns, the general algebraic formula for the quadratic equation, and solutions of indeterminate quadratic equations and simultaneous equations.
• Circa 499: Indian mathematician Aryabhata, in his treatise Aryabhatiya, obtains whole-number solutions to linear equations by a method equivalent to the modern one, describes the general integral solution of the indeterminate linear equation and gives integral solutions of simultaneous indeterminate linear equations.
• Circa 628: Indian mathematician Brahmagupta, in his treatise Brahma Sputa Siddhanta, invents the chakravala method of solving indeterminate quadratic equations, including Pell's equation, and gives rules for solving linear and quadratic equations.
• Circa 850: Indian mathematician Mahavira solves various quadratic, cubic, quartic, quintic and higher-order equations, as well as indeterminate quadratic, cubic and higher-order equations.
• 1114: Indian mathematician Bhaskara, in his Bijaganita (Algebra), recognizes that a positive number has both a positive and negative square root, and solves various cubic, quartic and higher-order polynomial equations, as well as the general quadratic indeterminant equation.
• Circa 1400: Indian mathematician Madhava of Sangamagramma finds iterative methods for approximate solution of non-linear equations.

Other Inventions

• Hydraulic Valve Tower in Sigiriya
• Chess
• Coins
• Indian musical notation
• Rocket artillery
• Ludo
• Snakes and ladders
• Playing cards as we know them, Chinese playing cards were invented independent of European and Indian ones.
• Flush toilet
• The earlist and most sophisticated Sewage system in the Indus Valley Civilization
• The first university at Taxila
• The invention of plastic surgery
• Bronze
• cotton

Modern Contributions

• Bose–Einstein statistics
• Bose-Einstein condensate
• Boson
• Raman scattering