SCIENCE AND ART SPECIALISATIONS

KNOWN TO THE INDIANS IN VEDIC TIMES1

Dr C Chendroyaperumal
Professor and Head
Department of Managemet Studies
Saveetha Engineering College
Chennai, India
Ccp_dr@yahoo.co.in

Key words: Sciences, India, Vedas

Abstract
This papers attempts to present a list of sciences and arts known to the Indians during the vedic

periods much before the development of sciences in the West.

India and the Sciences

The time series data, i.e. history tells us that many other countries raided or occupied or robbed

or enslaved India for various periods of time only for India’s wealth. This fact speaks aloud that

India was more prosperous than all other countries. As is clear the prosperity is not possible

without resources and the requisite knowledge and skill. It is well known that many important

Indian works (in Sanskrit) are in the hands of the Europeans today. For instance the palm-leaves

manuscript of the classical book on the Strategies and wisdom (or intelligence) is in Germany

even today. The Buddha the Great conquered his self first and then conquered hearts and

countries with love and knowledge and more important without any weapons whatsoever (unlike

the arrogant Alexander, the cruel Hitler and many other rascals), Gandhiji The Great (Mahatma)

again did conquer the so-called mighty armed British and world hearts as well with the might of

his knowledge of the ancient Indian wisdom (the Bhagavat Gita for an instance) and without any

arms, the living human Mrs Shakuntaladevi proves to be far superior to a supercomputer in skill

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1373608

in computing and the introduction of zero by an Indian mathematician to the world of

knowledge. All these give ample evidence for the Indian scholarship, which each and every

Indian should be aware of, and take pride in.

However many may ask for the evidence for the ancient Indian contribution to the scientific

knowledge that is better known as today’s modern science. This paper is just a little attempt to

present a sample list of sixty three sciences known to the ancient Indians in the vedic times,

scattered in the Yajur Veda, to enlighten the present Indians to appreciate the number of

specializations and the scholarship that existed even before the Vedas were written and

rediscover them for the benefit of all the creatures including human being. Even a foolish and

crude estimate of the time of Yajur Veda, the date of these specializations, dates back to

thousands of years before the loving Jesus. It is said that the Rik Veda deals with knowledge, the

Yajur veda deals with the techniques of executions of actions (management!), the Sama Veda

deals with upasana (i.e. meditation) and the Atharva Veda deals with the miscellaneous subjects

and clarifications on the subjects of all the other three Vedas.

The table below gives the chapter number of the Yajur Veda in column-1, the mantra number in

column-2, the page number in the book referred* in column-3, the name of the science or art or

the related basic concepts in column-4 and the serial number assigned to the each science or art

after sorting them in an ascending order and with a rearrangement of the statements in Part-1 of

the table to provide the holistic view of the subject, since the subtlety of the Vedas lie in

rearranging the mantras to get the ideas properly. A mere sequential reading will not take anyone

to the idea in the proper context.

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1373608

Table-1 : The list of Science and Art specialization in vedic times in ancient India.
1 2 3 4 5
Chapter Mantra Page Science / Art S.No.
------- ------- ------- PART-1 -------------------------------------------------------------- ------
16 28 purpose of all sciences
8 168 scientist -- scientific knowledge – wealth
18 210 Knowledge -- different sciences
3 147 scientific knowledge – guidance
40 337 sciences – devotees
14 274 skill and art
24 65 student of a science
9 61 using scientific aspects. Theoretical & practical
5 138 Vedas
1 9 47 vedas display all sciences
14 3 25 vedas contains all sciences
5 2 69 yajna-instrument for preaching sastras (sciences)
------- ------- ------- PART-2 ------------------------------------------------------------- ------
13 57 203 21 sciences
19 12 295 all branches of knowledge
9 27 131 all sciences
7 30 101 art of administration 1
7 31 102 art of administration
9 7 124 art of administration
18 44 282 art of administration
28 5 407 art of administration
17 45 258 art of archery 2
23 36 363 art of cooking 3
10 5 138 art of elequence for a good speech (communication) 4
7 17 97 art of governance 5
28 7 407 art of medicine 6
12 49 176 art of speaking - communication 7
10 26 144 art pf kingship (governance) (to all female too!) 8
11 28 152 Artisan 9
6 21 88 Astronomy 10
10 5 138 Astronomy
1 14 28 civil engineering 11
8 5 109 different sciences
12 53 176 different sciences
11 19 150 Electricity 12
6 21 88 Geography 13
11 22 151 Geologist
11 28 152 Geologist
6 21 88 Geology 14
11 19 150 Geology
14 6 219 Geology
11 4 147 god-knower of all sciences
5 33 78 god-master of all forms of knowledge
10 5 138 Grammar 15
6 21 88 Hydrostatics 16
18 24 277 Mathematics 17
18 25 277 Mathematics
14 5 218 Mathematics (arithmatic science)
10 14 141 Mathematics (arithmatic: science of nine digits)
4 10 61 mechanical science 18
29 33 425 mechanical science
6 21 88 medical science 19
7 44 105 medical science
9 36 134 medical science
20 56 321 medical science
20 57 321 medical science
5 12 72 military science 20
33 72 463 neiscience (study of matter) 21
40 12 510 neiscience (study of matter)
40 13 510 neiscience (study of matter)
2 10 39 Panegyrics 22
21 40 337 Pathology 23
10 5 138 Politics 24
10 5 138 Prosody 25
7 32 102 Science
9 2 124 Science
10 5 138 Science
37 6 492 Science
14 7 219 science of agriculture 26
19 6 291 science of agriculture
16 39 243 science of air 27
18 17 275 science of air
18 45 283 science of air
24 27 375 science of animals 28
7 24 99 science of archery (ballistics) 29
16 10 236 science of archery (ballistics)
9 20 129 science of arithmatics (mathematics) 30
16 29 241 science of armoury 31
16 38 242 science of clouds 32
36 3 486 science of contemplation (simulation, planning, thinking) 33
6 24 89 science of control of breath 34
7 11 95 control of breath - yogic laws
21 59 344 science of cooking (for men) 35
34 17 472 science of creation (production) 36
18 18 275 science of earth (solids) 37
24 26 375 science of earth (solids)
1 10 27 science of electricity 38
5 4 69 science of electricity
9 36 134 science of electricity
10 5 138 science of electricity
16 38 242 science of electricity
17 65 262 science of electricity
38 4 498 science of electricity
38 9 499 science of electricity
14 7 206 science of fire 39
19 5 301 science of fire
16 42 243 science of foam 40
14 6 219 science of forms of nature (eight vasus) 41
5 23 75 science of geology
8 21 112 science of geology
9 22 130 science of geology
6 21 88 science of government 42
16 42 243 science of grass 43
37 19 496 science of heavens (cosmology) 44
37 18 496 science of honey - antidote to poison 45
14 6 219 science of light 46
16 24 240 science of logic (ladies) 47
9 36 134 science of material objects (material science) 48
10 9 140 science of medicine
14 7 219 science of medicine
19 1 290 science of medicine
20 69 323 science of medicine
21 33 335 science of medicine
21 53 342 science of medicine
28 7 407 science of medicine
16 5 235 science of medicine - first class
9 10 127 science of military warfare 49
36 3 486 science of moral duty (ethics, religion) 50
14 6 219 science of night 51
14 6 219 science of rain 52
18 26 278 science of rearing cattle 53
36 3 486 science of sacred knowledge 54
17 58 261 science of sun rays, light (spectroscopy) 55
14 6 219 science of time 56
18 18 275 science of time
24 25 374 science of time (timing for the study of birds) 57
9 8 126 science of velocity 58
17 37 256 science of war 59
9 16 128 science of warfare
5 23 75 science of yajna 60
7 47 106 science of yoga (structures or postures) 61
9 36 134 science of yoga (structures or postures)
10 5 138 science of yoga (structures or postures)
17 73 264 science of yoga (structures or postures)
37 8 493 science of yoga (structures or postures)
 3 20 49 sciences of air and water (liquids) 62
21 6 329 ship architechture (naval architechture) 63

Notes

1 The paper depends heavily on the book of Devi Chand (1964) for the source of the
information.

Reference
1 Devi Chand, The Yajur Veda (Second Edition), Sarvadeshik Arya PratinidhiSabha, New
Delhi, 1964.