Science and Sanskrit

 

PROJECT ON NON-CONVENTIONAL APPORACH TO  AERONAUTICS
or

AVIATION SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INIDA

Aviation science in Ancient India is an other project footage steps taken by ASR to prove Academy is seriously involved to bridge the gap & Justify the Ancient Indian had a deep knowledge on lesser known science subject called Aviation Science through the project entitled. “Non Conventional to aeronautics in Ancient India”.   This project is part of “Maharshi Bhardwajai “Vymanika  shastra” by which data or information  with regard to Indian aeronautics were extracted from  the valuable text. Bharadwaja Vaimanika Shastra 

WORK UNDERTAKEN DURING THE PROJECT ON NON-CONVENTIONAL APPORACH TO  AERONAUTICS

1.Aaharadhikarana -Food for the Pilots :

The Academy has entered into an M.O.U. with the internationally          repute CFTRI, Mysore with the intention of jointly proceeding on the   investigation culled out from the base text.

To begin with, seasonal food to be offered to Pilots was selected and    the support material details were passed on to CFTRI for their                  analysis. We are happy to state that CFTRI has since submitted to us    their analytical report which could form a valuable part of the Base         Document to be published by the Academy after completing its              investigation of all the aspects. In fact, this needs activities related to        user trials

The process of investigation has to be continued.

2. Lohadikarana - Seed Metals:

The Investigation. has revealed that there are three types of seed metals used in the ancient aviation manufacturing process. Viz.
               (i) Somaka;      (ii) Soundalika and        (iii) Mourthvika.
   It is further noted that each one has 11 classifications.The work of identifying each of these vis a vis correlating them with       the modem metallurgical science remains to be done.

3. Lohashudhikarana - Purification of Metals:

   1. The general purification process of all the seed metal (ores)have been since identified,
   2. Somaka Metal has in all 5 ingredients / mixtures. Out of these            We have identified as many as 4 and the 5th one need be Identified.

APPROACH:

Even though there are 3 categories of contributors to the subject matter i.e. (a) Maharshi Bharadwaja; (b) Bhodananda's Commentary and (c) Contributions of Lalla, Saunaka and others, it was decided to    stick to original text of Maharshi Bharadwaja's Vaimanika Shastra as envisaged in the project proposal.
Further, since the intention of the project was only to cull out the useful information that could be correlated to modern aviation principles and practices and not to go into the mechanics of manufacture of the Ancient Aircraft, it was decided to select only a few relevant chapters from out of the 21 listed chapters of the Vaimanika Shastra (Please refer annexure No. for the list). In fact the   detailed investigation of all the chapters will take more than a decade.
              
Incidentally we have been able to lay our hands on one of the 59 listed other source texts (as referred to in the Vaimanika Shastra), i.e.      "AMSHUBODHINI" it was decided to refer to this text also wherever the need is felt.

SELECTION OF CHAPTERS FOR INVESTIGATION:

To begin with, the Academy has, now taken up the following 4 chapters for detailed investigation. Of course during the initial tenure of 11 months at our disposal we could cover only a partial investigation in each of the 4 chapters and further work remains to be done for which the extension of time is now sought:
               1. Aaharadhikarana                              Food for the Pilots
               2. Lohadikarana                                   Seed Metals
               3. Lohashudhikarana                             Purification of Metals
               4. Ushmapadhikarana                           Preparation of Heat
                                                                                   Absorbing Alloys

   iii.         Soundilika Metal has as many as 26 ingredients and we have been able to identify as of now only 18 and the balance 8 remains to be identified.   We are yet to take up the identification process of ingredients of Mourthwika Metal for want of time

4.       Ushmapadhikarana - Preparation of Heat absorbing Alloys.

We have since listed 16 types of heat absorbing alloys (please refer annexure no. for the list) and the relevant mixing ratios have also been identified. The work of correlating these with the modern scientific equivalents and further lab tests process remains to be done. Apart from the above investigations the following work progress   was      also carried out:

a. Academy had the benefit of successfully interacting with the Resource Persons who have done some useful work connected to our study of  the non-conventional approach to Aeronautics and who had assembled in Bangalore as delegates to the 90th Indian Science Congress held at Bangalore from 2nd till 7th January, 2003.

b.            Compilation of Bibliography on works featuring in Bharadwaja's Vymanika Shastra.

c.            Collection of useful reports, Reviews, Articles and related publications of various resource persons and research centers have been carried out.

CONCLUSION:

From the above report it may be seen that the Academy has not only earnestly undertaken the investigation process but also systematically on a reasonable approach. It is hoped that we may get some more valuable information when we conduct the National Workshop for further investigations.

We are sure that the Aero Board will also supported our initiatives will not only hesitate to continue to extend the tenure of pilot project but also sympathetically consider our need of establishing a reasonable Chemical & Metallurgical lab facility at our campus (for    carrying out the need based experiments at a later stage)
.

COURSE OF ACTION PROPOSED TO BE UNDERTAKEN DURING THE NEXT TWO YEARS:

1.Furtherance of Extraction of valid interpretations.
2.Organizing a National Workshop.
3.Systematic re-arrangement of the inputs under the guidance of the Scholars /      Technocrats/ Scientists.
4. Editing of all the deciphered contents & publishing a Base Document.
5. To conduct Lab tests (using the existing lab felicities available at the      various

National Level Laboratories and at IISc, Bangalore) of about 4-6 ingredients/materials and obtain their characterization to verify the correctness of the line of action being initiated.

Aviation science in Ancient India is an other project footage steps taken by ASR to prove Academy is seriously involved to bridge the gap & Justify the Ancient Indian had a deep knowledge on lesser known science subject called Aviation Science through the project entitled. “Non Conventional to aeronautics in Ancient India”.   This project is part of “Maharshi Bhardwajai “Vymanika  shastra” by which data or information  with regard to Indian aeronautics were extracted from  the valuable text. Bharadwaja Vaimanika Shastra 
        
Aviation scince in Anciant india is an and this project. footage stips by ASR prove Acadamy is sliowly involved to bridge the gap b & justigy the Anciat indianihad a dup Knowledge on lesser Krown science sabject colld Aviation science though the project Entitlel Non      conventionel to aeronautics in Aneiat india this projectis part of "Maharshi Bharadwaja vymanika shastra" by which data or information with regard to indian arwnautics were Entarcted from the     valuable text B.V.S work undurtaken the project period is       

   A language derives its value not merely from its logical and grammatical structure but from the manner in which it has been used and the richness of its literature. Whether we looked at the simple, unsophisticated folk style found hi fable-books like the Pancatantra        and the Hitopcdesa, or the practical and scientific writings in the            

Various Sastras like the Arthasastra, Natyasastra, Ayurveda or Jyotisa; whether we delved into the rich, highly developed literary style that expressed itself through the poetry, the. dramas and the prose romances of Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti, Magha and Banabhatta; whether      we turned to the thousands of Subhasitas (reflective and didactic stanzas), as in the Nitisataka of Bhartrihari, or we studied the great philosophies and learned commentaries of Kapila or Shankara; whether we read the well-known epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, which are an entire world hi themselves; whether we sought for the principles of yoga in the Yogasiitras of Patanjali, or scaled the highest peaks of spiritual poetry through the Vedas, the Upanisads and the Gita - there was no limit to the treasures that awaited us.s

Projects on  Encyclopedia of Ancient Indian science and Technology

Project Submit

  1. Encyclopedia is Ancient Indian Sciences and Technologies in 12 volumes specially in Sanskrit  will be cover all the scientific and Tech . Materials available in Sanskrit.

The Encyclopedia will caver all the scientific and Technological material available in their ancient texts in  11 volumes and the 12th volume will be  devoted to the scientist and technologies who were responsible for the growth of this knowledge in India.

The volumes are subject based and references to the entries are made topically  and alphabetically.  The index covers both the representations in English Sanskrit  subject will so that the reader can also search the subject he is familiar with.

Volume 1 and 2 – Mathematics
  -:-        3 and 4 -   Medicine
 -:-             5      -   Cosmology
 -;-            6      -    Physical Science and Metallurgy
 -:-           7      -     Chemical and Biological Science
-:-         8&9   -      Technological achievements
-:-          10   -        Ecology, Geology and Gemology
 -:-         11  -         information & Technology &Phonetics
-:-         12   -        Scientists & technologists

An  Encyclopedia of Science and Technology in ancient India would achieve the Following:-

  1. Will make available all the information connected with science and technology generated and spread by Indian Scientists and Technologists at the part in one place.
  2. Will be a platform to analyze , accept, reject experiment based on the present  and future knowledge generated by scientists world wide

c)  Will dispel the myth that the science and technology practiced in India was a shambg making analytical approach to the subject.

  1. Will be source and reference material for all time to come and will boost  the morale of scientific and technical communing of  India in the eyes of  international scientific and technical community.