Science in Sanskrit - A few examples

There are a lot of concepts present in science which were mentioned in ancient Sanskrit scripts. We do not understand that what we learn is from 16^th century to 21^st century. All these developments were enclosed and hidden in Sanskrit scriptures long ago. Some concepts which we think were developed recently like compression and decompression, coding and encoding & decoding, multiplexing, etc, were already done by great Sanskrit scholars.

For example, what we call compression is reducing the bit sizes and making the bits compact. This was done very long ago by Panini. Panini’s grammar is what we are learning in Sanskrit. Panini developed 8 books of Grammar, called “Ashtaadhyaayi” (अष्टाध्यायी). They contain around 4000 “Sutras” (सूत्राणि), or the rules in the form of aphorisms. These are not just axioms, because they can be explained. Also, they can be expanded. “Sutras” are in the compressed form. For example, “Echoyavaayaava:” (एचोयवायाव:) is one sutra where one of the important Sandhi is explained. For a normal person it might look absurd with no meaning. But its meaning can be obtained by decompressing it. The decompressed one is called “Vaartika”(वार्तिक).  It is of the form “Echa: kramaat ay av aay aav ete syu:” (एच: क्रमात् अय् अव् आय् आव् एते स्यु:). After Panini, there were scholars who wrote Vartikas for Panini’s Ashtaadhyaayi. A further decompression would result in elaborate explanation called “Bhaashya”. There were many scholars who did “Bhashya” for Panini’s Ashtaadhyaayi.

Another example is of the coding and decoding. There is a system called Katapaya (कटपय) coding. Here the alphabet of Sanskrit language is provided a code number for each letter, called Katapaya Sankhya. Many scholars used this coding system in their Shlokas for portraying mathematics, astronomical concepts, geography, philosophy, and logic. One such example is that: when any shloka has the word “Paapam”, when the entire letters of the Shloka are converted to their equivalent sankhya, the entire number is divisible by 11. 11 is the number denoted by converting “Paapam” to katapaya coding. Poets like Kalidas, Vedanta Desika have used the coding system in many of their shlokas to show the beauty as well as command over the language. Another usage of this Katapaya coding can be found in Ragas – Melakarta.

In one of the shlokas praising Lord Krishna, the author has decoded the value of pi (22/7), upto 31 decimal places using the Katapaya coding.

गोपीभाग्यमधुव्रातशृङ्गिशोदधिसन्धिग खलजीवितखातावगलहालारसन्धर |

3.1415926535897932384626433832792

There are a lot of words in Sanskrit denoting tree like तरु, वृक्षं, द्रुमं, etc. But there is one word which scientifically explains what a tree does – पादप: - explained as पादै: पिबति इति – meaning one who drinks water using his feet (here roots of the tree).

In Vedas, there are numerous places which speak about life and nature. It explains the evolution of elements and species.

आकाशद्वयु: | वायोरग्नि: | अग्नेरापळ: | अद्भ्य:पृथिवी | … It is an extract from Upanishad that says about how elements are evolved from ether, etc. 

We have scientists who research Panini grammar, for getting out the application in Natural Language Processing. Also, organizations like NASA have confirmed that there are numerous benefits in using Sanskrit language for the current and the future generation too. Fields like artificial intelligence, machine learning, aeronautics, etc. can use the structure of Sanskrit language for developing their desired products. The above information is not even a drop among the ocean.