Linking Past with Present- The Incredible India

There were tremendous advances in mathematics in India about 2000 years ago and in medicine about 2500years. When sophisticated calculations and observations were being made in India in ancient times,Europe generally was in the primitive age.

The discovery of wheel revolutionized  land transport, it is use for making carts which transported goods and passengers was possibly one of the most significant developments of the Bronze age. The real ingenuity in developing this mode of transportation, was in joining the solid roller or wheel to the body of cart in such a way that it could turn without coming off. carts pulled by animals soon developed in Mesopotamia, Indus Valley and much later in Egypt where the boat remained the main mode of transport. With the availability of surplus in agriculture and the production of non-agricultural goods by craftsmen, exchange and trade become a part of life. With the passing of time, exchange by craftsmen, exchange and trade became a part of life therefore some Standards, such as numbers and measure of amounts and weights became necesarry. Exchange of trade gave birth to arithmetic, the use of bricks for building houses gave rise to the ideas of right angle and straight line which we call geometry.

A strong school of modern historians and archaeologists, such as Debiprasad Chattopadhya of  Calcutta and Allchin of Oxford.

Education in ancient India reached its pinnacle with Taxila and Nalanda being the epicentres of Buddhist learning

Developments in Medicine: During the early Vedic period, healing was thought to be the duty of priest. Diseases were seen as the results of God's wrath for sins. Interwoven with these ideas, we find speculations about the origin, use of healing drugs and surgery in the Vedic texts. Punarvasu Atreya ( about 6th century B.C.) taught medicine at Taxila. Each of his disciples such as Bhela,Jatukarna, Harita, Ksarapani, Parasara wrote treaties on medicine. Atreya himself Patanjali (about 2nd century) wrote commentaries on what is considered to be the main Indian treaties on medicine, the CARAKA-SAMHITA and the surgical text SUSRUTA-SAMHITA.