Glimpses Of Indian Scientific Heritage

About the Author Dr. K. P. Rajappan was born in Tripunithura, a small town in Kerala. He had his education in Cochin, and Mumbai. After completing the Diploma course in Advanced Electronics, he began his career as an engineer in an American firm 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 from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London. Later, returning to India he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, as a Professor. He has published more than a hundred technical papers in foreign journals. He served as visiting faculty at the Cochin University and the University of Peradania, Ceylon.

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

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

India's 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's contribution in the field of mathematics.

In ancient India, there lived a set of people known as rsis, who were a peculiar clan seen nowhere else in the world. They always chose to remain anonymous and were not after power, pleasure, wealth or glory. They devoted their entire lives to the cause of knowledge by their careful observation of the phenomenal world. Their untiring spirit of enquiry and thirst for knowledge elevated the various branches of science. This they did, not with any laboratory experiments, but through 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 later, Kanada proposed in his Vaisesikasutras, atomic theory. The same was proposed by Dalton, an Englishman, 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 made by various scientists in several important scientific fields.

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

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

Book's Contents and Sample Pages