The scientific and technological previous of historic India isn’t just a chapter of historical past, however a information for the current and future. It showcases a large spectrum of human genius — from mathematical abstraction to specific surgical procedure and glorious metallurgy. Indian training methods now want to incorporate this heritage within the core curriculum
Long earlier than “engineering” grew to become a proper self-discipline, India was practising it. Between roughly 3300 and 1300 BCE, the Indus Valley Civilization constructed meticulously deliberate cities, coated drainage methods, and refined metalwork. The Vedic interval added agriculture, additional metallurgy, and systematic sky-watching — the bottom for a scholarly line operating from the Rigveda to Aryabhata, Sushruta, Charaka, Varahamihira, and Bhaskaracharya.
Centres of studying comparable to Nalanda, Vikramshila, and Takshashila introduced philosophy, astronomy, arithmetic, and medication collectively beneath one roof. Aryabhata’s Aryabhatiya (c. 499 CE) labored out trigonometric formulation, argued that the Earth itself strikes, and calculated its circumference at 39,968 kilometres. Bhaskaracharya’s Lilavati laid early groundwork for algebra, and Brahmagupta set out the principles for unfavorable numbers. The Sushruta Samhita is the earliest recognized textual content on detailed surgical procedure, together with plastic and cataract methods, whereas the Charaka Samhita reads like an encyclopaedia of inner medication. Nagarjuna’s Rasashastra coated medicinal preparation, the Surya Siddhanta calculated eclipses and planetary movement, and Varahamihira’s Panchasiddhantika merged 5 astronomical traditions into one. The rust-free Iron Pillar of Delhi (c. 400 CE) nonetheless puzzles metallurgists, and Vastu Shastra drew its architectural ideas from the solar’s motion, wind, and a stability of 5 parts. We dwell amid synthetic intelligence, generative instruments, personal spaceflight, AR/VR, 5G, drones, humanoid robots, and 3D printing — alongside deepening environmental crises, rising psychological well being difficulties, and ethics that haven’t saved tempo with the expertise. That hole is value naming — and price asking what earlier Indian thought, constructed round stability reasonably than pure output, may nonetheless provide.
Ayurveda and the Practice of Staying Well
Ayurveda, India’s conventional medical system, treats thoughts and physique as one related complete. Its objective is captured in a well known line: “Swasthasya swasthya rakshanam, aturasya vikar prashamanam cha” — shield the well being of the properly, and treatment the illness of the sick. That intention hasn’t aged. Ayurvedic studying follows day by day and seasonal rhythm. Dinacharya prescribes waking earlier than daybreak, train, bathing, and reflection. Rtucharya divides the 12 months into six seasons — Shishir, Vasant, Grishma, Varsha, Sharad, and Hemant — every calling for dosha changes; summer season’s rising Pitta and Vata, as an illustration, name for cooling meals and loads of water. Diet follows six tastes — candy, bitter, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent — eaten in keeping with one’s digestive energy, since, per the Charaka Samhita, weak digestion is the basis of practically each sickness (“Roga sarve mandagnau”). Mentally, Ayurveda describes temperament by way of three gunas — Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas.
The stakes are actual: diabetes, hypertension, weight problems, and coronary heart illness are actually widespread sufficient to pressure well being methods worldwide — just one nation has extra adults with diabetes than India. Ayurveda’s reply — dosha stability by way of Dinacharya, Rtucharya, and the Trayopastambha, or three pillars of well being — speaks on to this. Recognition extends properly past India: the WHO estimates 80–90 p.c of individuals worldwide use conventional medication and now treats such methods as important healthcare, mirrored in its option to host the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in India. AIIMS Rishikesh has run a Tridosha-based AYUSH division alongside typical remedy since 2017, the identical 12 months the All India Institute of Ayurveda in New Delhi grew to become absolutely operational; the National Institute of Ayurveda continues increasing analysis and coaching.
Children at the moment carry actual pressure from examination strain and fixed social media publicity. Patanjali answered this centuries in the past: his second yoga sutra, “Yogashchitta vritti nirodhah,” defines yoga because the stilling of the thoughts’s fluctuations — peace by way of mastering restlessness, not eliminating its causes. The National Education Policy 2020 makes a associated level, insisting self-understanding deserves as a lot consideration as tutorial content material.
India’s older texts — the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Ayurveda — deal with psychological well being as one a part of a wider image spanning physique and spirit. The Atharvaveda’s descriptions of mantras and therapeutic sound anticipate what’s now marketed as sound remedy and mindfulness. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras set out an eight-limbed path — Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi — for growing physique, thoughts, and spirit collectively. Practised repeatedly, it builds flexibility, energy, and immunity, helps digestion and respiratory, eases stress and nervousness, sharpens focus and reminiscence, and nurtures self-knowledge, a steadier outlook, and empathy.
Global recognition is tough to overstate: when the UN marked the primary International Yoga Day on June 21, 2015, 177 nations backed it. India has since made yoga obligatory in faculties, and establishments as distinguished as Harvard and Stanford now analysis its results. An analogous sample holds for the surroundings. Despite actual scientific progress, local weather change and way of life illness hold worsening, partly as a result of college students not often be taught to deal with environmental care as central reasonably than optionally available. Older Indian thought handled nature as alive and acutely aware. The Atharvaveda’s line “Mata Bhumih Putroham Prithivyah” — the Earth is our mom, we’re her kids — framed defending the planet as a religious responsibility. Forests have been designated Aranyak or Tapovan and guarded; timber just like the peepal and neem have been revered as Devavriksha; water methods relied on rainwater harvesting, now being revived out of necessity; and the Panchatantra and Hitopadesha taught compassion towards animals by way of childhood fables.
Agriculture adopted the identical logic — combined cropping and natural manure — lengthy earlier than artificial fertilisers and pesticides introduced uncomfortable side effects now properly documented, alongside worsening air, water, and land air pollution. Bringing Vedic, Puranic, and folks ecological traditions again into training might tackle this on the root. India’s area programme exhibits the heritage nonetheless has momentum: Mangalyaan (2014) and the Chandrayaan missions, by way of Chandrayaan-3 (2023), lengthen reasonably than break from a a lot older custom of Indian arithmetic and astronomy. Teaching conventional fashions — the classical twelve zodiac indicators, say — alongside Kepler’s legal guidelines might sharpen college students’ mathematical-astronomical considering. The National Education Policy 2020 requires weaving India’s Vedic and classical scientific heritage into STEM training, restoring continuity whereas encouraging each indigenous satisfaction and world engagement. Vastu Shastra is a disciplined examine of how buildings relate to their environment — oriented across the solar’s path, wind, the Earth’s magnetic discipline, and a stability of 5 parts to safe pure mild, airflow, and power effectivity, a lot of it mapping onto what’s now known as inexperienced constructing design: passive cooling, pure lighting, rainwater harvesting, and solar energy.
The overlap goes past idea. LEED-certified buildings following Vastu’s most well-liked northeast-facing structure — the Ishan nook — have reduce power use by as much as 30 p.c in some research. Researchers at IIT Kharagpur discovered that Vastu-style courtyards, constructed round pure daylight and cross-ventilation, use roughly 40 p.c much less power than typical passive-cooling designs, whereas native supplies additionally reduce the carbon footprint. The National Education Policy 2020 helps bringing Vastu into structure curricula; pairing temple and haveli case research with green-certification coaching and solar-analysis software program might assist college students apply this heritage to climate-resilient design.
Ancient India’s scientific and technical achievements — spanning mathematical abstraction, surgical precision, and metallurgical ability nonetheless not absolutely defined — deserve an actual place within the core curriculum, not as nostalgia however as proof that science has at all times been a shared human mission Indian students helped form.
The intention is just not blind imitation of the previous or glorification of unscientific claims, however to offer training rooted in cultural foundations with a worldwide perspective. This will assist kids perceive that science is a common human endeavor wherein their ancestors additionally made important contributions. It will encourage them to undertake a multidisciplinary, complete, and sustainable method.
The National Education Policy 2020 requires weaving India’s Vedic and classical scientific heritage into STEM training, restoring continuity whereas encouraging each indigenous satisfaction and world engagement.
The creator is a famend educationist and at the moment the Vice-Chancellor of Ranchi University; Views introduced are private.