There is no denying the place of mythology in our cultural fabric - most of us have grown up regaled by stories that caused much wonder and awe at the rich heritage of our country, with an underlying understanding of the hyperbole that grew with time - along with the dawning of realisation that, essentially, it was to be taken with a pinch of salt. This gave us the liberty to accept that Hanuman carried the Kailash, or that Lakshman cut off Shurpanakha’s nose without literal interpretations, such as attempting to lift sections of the Western Ghats or taking aim with bow and arrow at our own arch nemesis’ faces. While it is important to draw upon the vast knowledge well present in our ancient texts for a better understanding of the developments made in the spheres of science and technology in ancient times, the Indian Science Congress that culminated on the January 7th unearthed some mysterious papers with claims that’ll have you doing a double take to check that you read right.

When mythology was woven into the schedule at The Indian Science Congress hosted by the Mumbai University on its Kalina campus last Saturday, it wasn’t just our generation that came out bemused and point-blankly skeptical. This is the latest in a growing number of instances in the unprecedented amalgamation of religion, by way of mythology, in the fields of science, technology and education we have been witnessing lately, that is frankly growing to be quite worrying. The 102nd edition of the Indian Science Congress, held in Mumbai for the first time in 45 years, is a congregation for the discussion of the latest developments and innovations spanning the various disciplines of science, a five-day conference that culminated on January 7th. Attended by Nobel Laureates, academicians and eminent scientists, and themed ‘Science and Technology for Human Development,’ the congregation included the symposia ‘Ancient Sciences Through Sanskrit’, and presentations on topics such as ancient Indian aviation technology and advances in surgery in ancient times in the country found their way into schedule, with several ministers joining in animatedly to share their two cents as well.

“So far, Sanskrit is essentially considered a language of religion and philosophy but the fact is that it also talks about science including physics, chemistry, geography, geometry etc. There is a lot of scientific information available in these texts and historical documents that we want to explore,” Gauri Mahulikar, associate professor and head of department of Sanskrit at Mumbai University, who is in charge of co-ordinating the sessions told Times of India. According to a Scroll.in report, Prakash Javadekar, minister of environment, forests and climate change, who inaugurated the session on Sanskrit knowledge left before the papers even began, denying his awareness of what was scheduled at the congress.

The scientific community, as you can imagine, hasn’t taken too kindly to this turn of events at this edition of the convention. An Indian scientist from the US, who attended the session out of curiosity, said, “Knowledge always grows, its flow never stops. So if all this knowledge was available in the ancient days, I need to know where it stopped. Why did it fail to grow? Why was there no advancement? When did it stop? I am not aware of the chronology of events, but I am definitely willing to learn more and find out.” Another at NASA’s Ames Research Centre in California, Dr Ram Prasad 

Gandhiraman, launched an eventually unsuccessful online petition demanding that the  ‘Ancient Indian Aviation Technology’ session be cancelled altogether, which has garnered 1,424 signatures and counting till date.“We as scientific community should be seriously concerned about the infiltration of pseudo-science in science curricula with backing of influential political parties. Giving a scientific platform for a pseudo-science talk is worse than a systematic attack that has been carried out by politically powerful pseudo-science propagandists in the recent past. If we scientists remain passive, we are betraying not only the science, but also our children,” says the petition.

Here are some of the snippets overheard at the congress:

 I. Ancient Aviation

Ancient aviation drew an unrivalled amount of attention this edition, thanks to a paper presented by Captain Anand Bodas, a retired principal of a pilot training institute, and Ameya Jadhav, a college teacher. Cited to be far more advanced than modern day technology, as described by the sage Maharshi Bharadwaja, the paper stated, “The knowledge of aeronautics is described in Sanskrit in 100 sections, eight chapters, 500 principles and 3,000 verses. In the modern day, only 100 principles are available.” 

“In those days aeroplanes were huge in size, and could move left, right, as well as backwards, unlike modern planes which only fly forward,” he had said, adding that the aeroplane was a vehicle that was also capable of inter-planetary travel thousands of years ago, flown by pilots clad in suits made of underwater plants that were electricity proof, shockproof and waterproof. The pilots apparently thrived on a diet of buffalo, sheep and cow milk, their vehicles surprisingly agile for their  hefty 60 X 60 and 200 X 200 build.

“There is official history and unofficial history. Official history only noted that the Wright Brothers flew the first plane in 1903,”  Bodas said in his 30 minute speech. “The ancient planes had 40 small engines,” he adds, also mentioning that they had a flexible exhaust system that modern aviation is still miles away from. Interestingly, when The Hindu asked him for a copy of his presentation though, he refused to share it. “Please ask the organisers. I have given my copy to them. I did not even operate the computer during the presentation,” he said.

The organisers, when approached, said they require Captain Bodas’ permission to share the same. “If he has asked you to approach us, he clearly does not want to share it,” an organiser told The Hindu, adding that the decision to upload all presentations on the official website had been reversed. “We had earlier decided we will upload all the presentations on our website. But we have changed our minds now. We will only upload a report on the session,” Uma Vaidya, chairperson of the session and Vice Chancellor of Kavikulaguru Kalidasa Sanskrit University, Ramtek, commented to The Hindu.

II. Pythagoras’ Theorem

Union minister of science and technology, Dr Harsh Vardhan, said “Our scientists discovered the Pythagoras theorem but we very sophisticatedly gave its credit to the Greeks. We all know we knew ‘beej ganit’ much before the Arabs, but very selflessly allowed it to be called algebra.” Even as fears regarding the modification of the curricula taking a pronounced Hindu slant grow, Dr Harsh Vardhan drew attention to ancient Indian sciences, emphasising how altruistic Indians have been in their inventions. Mathematicians’ responses spanned the spectrum.

”We know Indians have contributed to mathematics to a great extent. However, I was surprised to hear what he said. Maybe the way he thinks about mathematics is different than what we academicians do,” said one Mumbai University mathematics professor at the inaugural function, while another shared, “We gave the world zero. For everything in mathematics, be it algebra or anything else, we have to start with zero. So we cannot ignore what we have contributed to mathematics.”  Congress MP Shashi Tharoor came out in support of Vardhan on social media, saying on Twitter that “modernists sneering at Vardhan should know he was right” adding that “to mock the credulous exaggerations of the Hindutva brigade, you don’t need to debunk the genuine accomplishments of ancient Indian science”.

III. Surgery & Medical Science in Ancient India

“Indians had developed 20 types of sharp instruments and 101 blunt ones for surgeries, which largely resemble the modern surgical instruments. Vaikrutaapaham, retaining the original colour and texture of the skin after a surgery, is one of the seven post-operative treatment steps for abscess. The process is not so common in the modern surgical practices,” said a paper presented at the ISC. One of the papers presented by Dr Ashwin Sawant, an Ayurvedic physician also claims that ancient Indians were able to perform advanced medical procedures such as removing dead foetuses from wombs and even live foetuses from deceased mothers, in addition to cranial, ophthalmic and even plastic surgeries.

“Susrut Sahita is the first text of surgery, created not later than 1500 BC in India. References of advanced surgeries are also found in Rigveda considered as first text of universe, created not later than 6000 B.C,” an extract from Dr Sawant’s paper says. According to a Hindustan Times report, autopsies were conducted by leaving the dead body to float in water for three days. When the muscles and nerves swelled, the body was dissected with surgical instruments that carried the names of animals and birds.
There were some genuinely interesting theories discussed at the ISC but they were unfortunately overshadowed by the howlers unearthed in this whole affair. If you are keen on knowing what Indian inventions actually were ahead of others in the game of pioneering check out the list of accomplishments First Post compiled.