Computing Science in Ancient India
edited by T. R. N. Rao and Subhash Kak

Published by Center for Advanced Computer Studies, 1998
University of Southwestern Louisiana 70504

Reviewed by Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ph.D.

Computing Science in Ancient India is a collection of scholarly articles, which contributes to the growing body of evidence establishing that science originated in India. This book will satisfy the need of those who would like to objectively assess the scientific achievements of ancient Indians.

The book comprizes ten articles, six of them previously published in different scholarly journals. In the introductory chapter, Subhash Kak discusses the beginnings of science, which takes us back to ancient India. In the rock art and literature of ancient India, we find ample representation of abstract ideas, which led to the development of science. In the second chapter, Kak provides an overview of ancient Indian Science. Our understanding of the contributions to science by ancient Indians has improved considerably during last few decades. For example, Seidenberg discovered that the "Pythagoras" theorem was known to ancient Indians centuries before the Greeks, and is described in The Shatapatha Brahmana. Similarly the contribution of ancient Indians to mathematics, music, grammar, computing science, astronomy and cosmology are being recognized.

The use of binary numbers forms the basis for the operation of digital computers. B. van Nooten of the University of California, Berkeley, describes his discovery of binary numbers in Pingala ’s "Chandahshastra", an ancient Indian text on music. In order to classify the meters, Pingala constructs a "Prastara" or a matrix of binary numbers. Pingala also describes how to find the binary equivalent of a decimal number.

The hashing technique is used in computer science to retrieve a record from a table. Ananda V. Raman discusses the similarity of "The Katapayadi Scheme" to modern hashing techniques. Indians devised ways to represent numbers in the form of text. Each letter was assigned a specific numerical value. A verse from "Sadratnamala" in fact represents the value of pi up to sixteen decimal places!

The structure of computer programming languages is discussed by T. R. N. Rao in the chapter titled "The Panini-Backus Form in Syntax of Formal Languages". Panini, the great Punjabi Sanskrit schlaor, invented a notation to describe the rules of grammar, which are remarkably similar to that devised by Backus. This article makes the powerful case for renaming Backus-Naur Form to Panini-Backus Form, as "we must give credit where credit is due."

In two scholarly articles Professor J. F. Stall, (University of California, Berkeley) discusses the test of Panini’s Astadhayayi  by automaton and formal structures in Indian logic. The knowledge of planets in the Vedic literature is also described in this book. David Frawley describes the astronomical information found in Vedas, Brahmanas and Upanisads.

A vast body of scientific information is hidden in ancient Hindu scriptures and Sanskrit texts. Kak explains the astonishing discovery of speed of light in a medieval text by Sayana. Sayana comments on a verse in Rigveda that Sun traverses 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha. Yojana is an ancient Indian unit of length and nimesa is the unit of time. Upon conversion in modern units, this yields the value of 186,000 miles per second. Now it is well known that this is the velocity of light. Why would Sayana call this the velocity of Sun? It turns out that Sayana was following the ancient Indian tradition of codifying the knowledge. In this code Sun represents light.

Kak also describes the science of consciousness in ancient India. It describes the parallels between Vedic theory of consciousness and those of quantum mechanics and neuroscience. It tells how the development of quantum mechanics by Schrodinger was inspired by Vedanta. Schrodinger wrote:

"This life of yours which you are living is not merely a piece of this entire existence, but is in a certain sense the whole; only this whole is not so constituted that it can be surveyed in one single glance. This, as we know, is what the Brahmins express in that sacred, mystic formula, which is yet really so simple and so clear: tat tvam asi, this is you. Or, again in such words as "I am in the east and the west. I am above and below, I am this entire world."

Computing Science in Ancient India is an excellent book persuasivley presenting the scientific achievements of ancient Indians.