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Indian contributions to science and technology - III
In this final instalment of ‘Indian contributions to science and technology’, the achievements of Indians in civil engineering, construction materials and navigation have been summarised.
Civil engineering and construction materials
India is home to one of the oldest and arguably the most advanced civilisation in the world: the Indus - Saraswati valley civilisation. This civilisation, known universally as the Indus valley civilisation, has been renamed by scholars, as it flourished along the banks of two great rivers, Indus and Saraswati. The Saraswati river, mentioned in the Vedas, dried-up somewhere between 3500 to 4500 years ago, due to drastic geological changes. The decline of the Indus - Saraswati valley civilisation coincides with the drying up of the Saraswati river. Some historians consider that the Ghaggar and Hakra rivers, seasonal rivers present in India and Pakistan respectively, may have been the Vedic Saraswati river.
The Indus - Saraswati civilization was the world's first to build planned towns with underground drainage, civil sanitation, hydraulic engineering, and air-cooled constructions. Whereas the other ancient civilisations of the world were small towns with one central complex, this civilisation had the distinction of being spread across many towns, covering a region about half the size of Europe. This civilisation is still shrouded in mystery, as its script has not yet been decoded. Archaeological excavations have revealed that even 5000 years ago, every house had its own bathroom and drainage! There are also evidences of stairs, indicating the existence of buildings with two or more levels. It is astounding to note that a system of standards was followed in determining the sizes of the bricks used for construction, regardless of the size, location and period of construction.
Startling finds off the coast of Gujarat a few years ago, reveal that the Indian civilisation might be even older. The remains of what has been described as a huge lost city may force historians and archaeologists to radically reconsider their view of not just the Indian civilisation but of the ancient human history. Marine scientists have estimated that the archaeological remains discovered underwater in the Gulf of Cambay off the western coast of India could be over 9,000 years old. The vast city - five miles long and two miles wide - is believed to predate the oldest known civilisation by several millennia. Using SONAR, the marine scientists have identified huge geometrical structures at a depth of 120 feet.
Unlike most other civilisations, the prowess of Indians in constructing ground-breaking structures did not taper off. This could be seen from the masterpieces along the length and breadth of India. The whole world knows and admires the beauty and splendour of Taj mahal, as well as other structures in northern India, like Qutb Minar. But, rather surprisingly, not many outside India are aware of the monumental accomplishments in the southern part of India, best exemplified by a number of temples. Brihadeeswara temple in Tanjore in the state of Tamil Nadu is arguably the most outstanding among these. It was built a thousand years ago by Rajaraja Chola - I, one of the greatest kings of the Chola dynasty that ruled the southern part of India, until the 13th century. This temple was completely carved from granite, a monumental achievement, considering the fact that it was constructed a millennium ago. The main tower of this temple is about 70m high and is crowned by a cupola that is made of two huge blocks of granite, weighing more than 80 tonnes together. The task of carrying these huge stones to a height of 70m is a feat worth mentioning. In order to accomplish this, a sand ramp with a slope of 6 degrees was built from a distance of more than 2 km, meeting the temple tower at the apex. Elephants were used to drag these stones up the ramp, using a roller or wheel arrangement. It might be worthwhile to note that such ‘top-heavy’ structures were unusual in those days. Cupolas of structures built elsewhere were not solid ones - they were shell - like and had a certain wall - thickness. Moreover, such structures were built using a number of stones, unlike the cupola of the main tower of the Brihadeeswara temple. That is the reason why this temple is a monumental achievement and a testament to the prowess of the Indian engineers and architects of the yore. The picture below depicts the main tower of the Brihadeeswara temple:
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Granite is one of the most difficult materials to machine and the tools available a millennium ago, were rudimentary. To this end, an ingenious method was developed in those days in the southern part of India to quarry granite for the temples: using hand tools, a number of small holes were chiselled along the length and/or breadth of the stone to be quarried. After that, strong wooden blocks were hammered into these holes and water was poured on these blocks. Due to the seepage of water, the wooden blocks swelled, thereby creating and propagating a crack along the stone. They were then finished with hand tools to give them their final shape. To know more about these and similar awe-inspiring architectural accomplishments, this link to a video file available via ‘Google Video‘ would be very useful:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8931191297840928556&q
After the downfall of the mighty Chola Empire, another great empire, the Vijayanagara Empire, flourished from the 14th century well into the 17th century, in southern India. The capital city, Vijayanagara, was, in the words of a Portuguese traveller, as large as Rome and full of charm and wonder with its innumerable lakes, waterways and gardens, making it the best-provided city in the world.
There are many other examples that demonstrate the ingenuity of the Indians. Their know-how was passed on to many other countries, thereby aiding the accelerated development of the human beings in the past few centuries.
Navigation and shipbuilding
Shipbuilding was one of India’s major export-oriented industries until the British banned it. Some of the world’s largest and sophisticated boats were built in China and India. The compass and other navigation tools were already in use in the Indian Ocean long before Europe. Using their expertise in the science of seafaring, Indians participated in the earliest-known ocean-based trading system. In fact, "NAV" is the Sanskrit word for boat, and is the root word in "navigation" and "navy". Contrary to the portrayals that the Indians knew only coastal navigation, deep-sea navigation was so advanced that the Chola kings were able to invade and occupy the Srivijaya kingdom (modern-day Malaysia and Indonesia) about a thousand years ago. In fact, this fleet of Rajaraja Chola is considered to be the largest ever assembled before the 19th century. As an off-shoot of this invasion, the architectural know-how of the Indians was transferred to distant lands, resulting in the construction of temples like Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world. Though constructed in a land thousands of miles from the Indian subcontinent, this temple was built for the Hindu gods. The picture below depicts a part of this huge temple:
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Archaeological excavations have revealed that during the Indus - Saraswati civilisation, there was an active naval trade with the countries in the Persian Gulf. The existence of a port city called Lothal is a significant evidence. The world's first tidal dock was built here around 2500 BC. This port city had docking facilities analogous to modern ports.
Possibly one of the earliest foreign references to maritime trade with India is from the Bible, which states that King Solomon collaborated with King Hiram of Tyre, and built a fleet that sailed to Ophir and brought back a great deal of treasures. The precise location of the port of Ophir is still disputed, but some scholars like Max MΓΌller identified it with Abhira in the province of Gujarat in India.
As a concluding remark to the series on Indian contributions to science and technology, it is not an overstatement to say that India is not a developing country, but a 're-developing' country. Many of the so-called advancements made in the recent past are just re-inventions or re-discoveries. One would only have to look deeper into the glorious past of India for inspiration and information-no more, no less.
REFERENCES:
For the columns authored by Ashok Sridhar in "Ashok Column", please click here.
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