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.

Religions In India

Rise of Great Religions:

Bronze Age showed further refinements in intellectual developments. The Indus Valley civilization is a unique

example of this. Further we all know about the high intellect of Vedas and the Upanishads. The great text not only

deals with day to day matters of life but delve into the mysteries of life and other philosophical aspects.

They describe in great detail the religious doctrines and life of people.

Gautama Buddha came out with his preachings and attained nirvana around 500 B.C.

Thus we see a tendency in the Iron Age towards differentiation in the religious traditions of the Bronze Age Priest.

Soon both in Greece and India, philosophy took a new turn and began to look at nature as comprising several

constituent parts. This gave rise to the theory of Atoms in Greece and Anu in India.

India thru the Ages Of Intellectual developments

During the bronze age, an urban revolution also took place, Sumer & Akkad were two great great urban civilizations of

this age. Towns became centers of a number of activities. for every construction an architectural plan had to be drawn
in advance. These outlines were laid out with aid of strings. In India, the ancient knowledge of architecture
was called Sulve Sutra.
The impressive temples thus constructed also needed to be administered. Records of receipts and expenditures had to be
kept. This spurred te invention of script writing around 2000 B.C. Geometry, Arithmetic, astronomy, medicine and theology
developed at an impressive pace. Solar calender was developed in the Nile valley.
 In India a script was developed  as far back as 3500 B.C. ( Mohenjodaro script 3500-2500 b.c.)

The Iron Age: Iron age commenced at around 1200 B.C. Iron was used in India around 1000 B.C. and excavations
 show that
iron weapons such as arrow heads, spear heads, spear heads were commonly used in Western Uttar Pradesh from
about 800 B.C.