Glimpses of Indian Scientific Heritage

Dr. K.P. Rajapppan was born in Tripunithura a small town in kerala. He had his education in Cochin, and Mumbai. After completing the Diploma course in Advanced Electroonics, he began his career as an engineer in on American from in Mumbai. Then he worked in the Western Electric Company, London. In London he graduated from Imperial College of Science and Technology. Later he obtained his M. Sc. Degree in Electronics and Communication. Soon he joined the Department of Computer Science in the University of Rochester. In 1965 he took his Ph. D. degree frame the Imperial College of Science Technology, University of London. Later, retuning to India he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, as a Professor. He has published more than a hundred technology papers in foreign journals. He served as visiting at the Cochin University and the university of Preordain Ceylon.

After his retirement I.I.T., Dr. Rajappan took his M. Phil. Degree in Technical Literature in Sanskrit, from the Madras University. He is presently engaged in research on Indian ancient technical literature in Sanskrit. Dr. Rajappan is on a mission to make use of the infinite possibilities of Sanskrit language in computers.

The Scientific tradition in India is almost as old as civilization itself and this is reflected in the literature and practices from earliest times.

Indian contribution in the field of mathematics is indeed phenomenal. The discovery of zero place value number systems, decimal and binary systems without which development of modern computer was impossible. It may be mentioned here that the greatest scientist of the 20th century, Einstein, has declared that no scientific advancement was possible without India contribution in the field of mathematics.

In ancient India, there lived a set of people knows as rsls, who were a peculiar clan seen nowhere else in the world. They always chose to remain anonymous and were power, pleasure, pleasure, wealth or glory. They entire live to cause of knowledge by their careful observation of the Phenomenal would. Their untiring spirit of enquiry and thirst for knowledge elevation the various branches of science. The they did, not with and laboratory experiments. But though pure metaphysical contemplation. In this connection, it is worth mentioning that way back in the 7th century; kapila had proposed a valid theory of creation of the universe in his famous Samkhyasutras. A century latter, kanada proposed in his Vaisesikasutras, atomic theory. The same was proposed by Dalton, an Englishmen, in the 18th century.

This thin volume entitled Glimpses of Indian Scientific Heritage is a collection of selected papers which I had published in various research and popular journals. The first part contains ten research papers on various subjects and their connection with the modern science. The Second part is a collection of papers on contributions mode by various scientists in serial important scientific fields.

I wish to thank Professor Vasudevan Potti of Sukrtindra Oriental Research for many fruitful discussions in this regard.

Finally, I am indebted to Dr. V. Nithyanantha Bhat, Director to the same Institute, for encouraging me to publish this small vlume.