Recently at the 102nd Indian Science Congress the concepts of ancient Indian Vedic science were debunked and called unpractical especially the ancient aeronautic knowledge to make airplanes. In a TV show “We the People” some of the renowned intellectuals laughed at the ancient knowledge and religion. Being a proud citizen of a country where our scientists pray to God before launching a spacecraft, it was disheartening to hear such views. This put to doubt hundreds of hours spent in temples and listening to stories of our Hindu Gods doing miracles. Felt like have wasted an important part of life praying to God whom such learned people say is just a myth. It called for some study of ancient history of science.
Just a click on the internet opened a lot of food for thought from science to archaeology to mythology. Even though history used to be an interesting subject during school days, I had always studied it from academic point of view. Had never thought about the philosophical aspect. It is ironic that in our schools we are made to pray in the morning and then the whole day taught to believe only the science backed by proof. There is no mention of the religions where archaeological evidence is not available. There is no chapter on God in any of the school books. History is a proof, what was once fiction was made possible by science. The current day inventions must be a work of fiction to the initial humans but we are living them today. Flying objects must have been considered a flight of fantasy till 1904 when Wright brothers invented the flying machine. Alexander the great warrior, would have laughed at the idea of nuclear bombs and missiles.
A re-visit to the history books and websites with an equal eye for science and mythology reveals that even science does not answer all the questions about the existence of life on earth and creation of universe. The starting point of modern science, the Big Bang Theory is based on assumptions with no concrete evidence. In 2003 Physicist Robert Gentry proposed an alternative theory contradicting the Big Bang and same is the thought of other high profile scientists and astronomers. As per science, Life on this planet is a result of favourable conditions and a series of chance events. If this theory is true this means that one form of species transformed from other species. The transformation from one form to the other must have gone through generations of species having features of both the forms. As a layman this theory confirms the claims of ancient history of Hinduism where Lord Ganesha and Lord Hanuman had features of both animals and humans. Today scientists are working on the concept of unnatural birth techniques like cloning, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and with Genetic Engineering hopefully will be successful in the near future in producing human beings with predisgned features. The Kauravas and Karna, son of Kunti, in the epic of Mahabharat were not born out of natural procedure. Jesus Christ was born to a virgin mother Mary, another example of unnatural birth in historic times.
In prehistoric period before the development of writing systems, knowledge was transferred orally from generation to generation. Archaeological evidence indicates the development of astronomical knowledge in preliterate societies. There have been several instances in the history where conditions were not favourable and old knowledge was destroyed or not practiced for a long time inbetween. There is ample literature available on the internet to support this theory.
*The level of achievement in Hellenistic astronomy and engineering is impressively shown by the Antikythera mechanism (150-100 BC), an analog computer for calculating the position of planets. Technological artifacts of similar complexity did not reappear until the 14th century, when mechanical astronomical clocks appeared in Europe.
*Galen (129 – c. 200 AD) performed many audacious operations—including brain and eye surgeries— that were not tried again for almost two millennia.
*Ayurveda is a system of traditional medicine that originated in ancient India before 2500 BC, and is now practiced as a form of alternative medicine in other parts of the world. Its most famous text is theSu?rutasamhit? of Su?ruta, which is notable for describing procedures on various forms of surgery, including rhinoplasty, the repair of torn ear lobes, perineal lithotomy, cataract surgery, and several other excisions and other surgical procedures.
*Astronomical observations from China constitute the longest continuous sequence from any civilisation and include records of sunspots (112 records from 364 BC), supernovas (1054), lunar and solar eclipses. By the 12th century, they could reasonably accurately make predictions of eclipses, but the knowledge of this was lost during the Ming dynasty,
The writing of the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata was not contemporary to the actual events as these were written much later after the development of writing systems. Even the Vedas were documented in 1700-1100 BCE. There is every chance that the stories may have got diluted and changed from the original happenings as got transferred from one generation to the other orally till they were documented. Some of the scientists say that the claims of these epics are just fantasies. There is every possibility that the stories got over exaggerated and changed from the actual happenings. However even fantasies need some reasoning to begin with. Human mind can exaggerate an idea but cannot create something out of nothing. It can build a story around an idea but it needs a concept to start imagining. The movie of Superman is a work of fiction, the idea of a flying human may have come from the Individual Lifting Vehicles (ILV) which are under development and the filmmaker decided to show superman flying without even wearing the device and the cylinders to make it look more interesting. As per the scientists at the Science Congress, a 40 engine airplane would need a practically impossible very long runway and the airplane will not even take off if made as per the design mentioned in the ancient literature. There is every possibility that the knowledge of making airplanes was passed on from generation to generation verbally and by the time documented the writer was not able to explain the design correctly. It is not possible that in 1700 BCE when people were so simple, someone took so much pain to write such long literature out of imagination. The ancient Indian literature mentions even minute details of human body. If we consider ancient science as just fiction, then 4000 years ago without telescopes how were planetary positions noticed and documented? Life on earth is stated to have transformed from a small molecule to the current date living creatures. We can see aboriginals even today in New Zealand and America. Some of them are still untouched by the achievements of modern human beings and surviving without a language. The continents do not have land connection and vast oceans separate these lands. Does it mean life got created simultaneously on all the continents and gone through same sequence of evolution? The idea of naked beings surviving on hunting, making a boat and travelling seems more fiction than the 40 engine airplane. The concept of Hindu Gods making an appearance and disappearing anywhere anytime looks like a work of imagination but today we do not wonder about the concept of video conference. Very soon we will be using virtual image constructing devices. We can see the other person virtually in front of us talking instead of seeing on computer screens.
The need is to consider mythology as possible science. The need is to doubt science and try to find new answers. Who created universe? Was the complex human body and its smart brain just a chance creation or a well designed self generating robot by a super scientist, the creator of the universe? It is imperative that we understand that even science has limitations and there is a huge gap wide open to be filled between science and mythology. We should encourage questioning of science and also discuss other options in schools. The modern science has made commendable achievements in every field but the major developments have happened only in the past 300 to 400 years whereas the history of human beings dates back to a few million years. Science is still in its infancy. It is too early to write off God due to lack of archaeological evidence. We are yet to explore the earth completely and then there are millions of other planets. The need is to keep the concept of God alive and try to find the answer as to why he is not visible now? Is he not available by his own will or he also has some limitations?
Disclaimer : The views expressed above are my own and not the claims of historic literature. The comparisons made between ancient literature and modern science are just assumptions to make a point.
