Bramha Gupta – The concept of zero was first formulated by Indian mathematician Brahma Gupta in 628AD. Developing the concept of zero is the most important discovery in the history of mathematics.
Brahma Gupta became the head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjain. He wrote 4 texts on mathematics and astronomy. The cadamekela in 624, the Bramha sputa sidhanta in 628, the Khandkhadyaka in 665, and the Durkeamynarda in 672.
Aryabhata (476–550 CE) – Was the great Indian mathematician and Indian astronomer. His most famous works are the Aryabhatiya (499CE) and the Aryasidhantika. Astronomy works- Motions of the solar system, eclipses, sidereal periods, and Heliocentrism.
Daivajna Varaāhamihira (505-587) – was an astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer. He is considered to be one of the Nine Jewels of the court of Legendary King Vikramaditya. Book Brahat Samhita (earthquake cloud theory).
Budhayana (800BCE) – He was the first one ever to arrive at several concepts in mathematics, which were later discovered by western world. The value of Pi(π) was first calculated by him. What is known as Pythagoras theorem today is already found in Budhayan’s Sulva Sutra (Salbasutra), which was written several years before the age of Phythogoras. He was the author of Budyayana Sutra’s, having six sections. 1. Srautasutra, 2.Karmantsutra, 3. Dhavidsutra 4. Grihyasutra, 5. Dharmasutra 6. Salbasutra.
Bhaskaracharya (12th Century) – He is famous for his book Siddanta Shiromani. It is divided into four sections: Lilawati (Arithmetic), Beejganit (Algebra), Goladhyaya (sphere), and Grahaganit (mathematics of planets). He introduced the Chakrawat method or the cyclic method to solve algebraic equations. In the 19th century Englishman James Taylor, translated Lilavati and made this great work known to the world.
Mahaviracharya – There is an elaborate description of mathematics in Jain literature (500BC-100BC). Jain Gurus knew how to solve quadratic equations. Jain Guru Mahaviracharya wrote Ganit Sara Sangraha in 850AD., which is the first textbook an arithmetic in present day form. The current method of solving L.C.M. of number’s was also described by him. Thus long before John Napier introduced it to the world, it was already known to Indians.
Kanad – 6th century scientist of Vaisha Shika School. His original name was Aulukya. He got the name Kanad because even as a child he was interested in very minute particles called ‘Kana’. His atomic theory can be a match to any modern atomic theory AC to him, material universe is made up of Kanas, (anu/atom) which cannot be seen through any human organ. There cannot be further subdivided. Thus, they are indivisible and indestactible.
Nagarjuna – was tenth century scientist. The main aim of his experiments was to transform base elements into Gold, like the alchemists in the western world. Even though, he was not successful in his goal. He succeeded in making an element with Gold like Shine. In his treatise, Rasaratnakara (Rasarnava). He has discussed methods for extraction of metals like Gold, Silver, tin and copper.
Susruta – He was a pioneer in the field of surgery. He considered surgery as “the highest division of healing arts and least liable to fallacy. In Susruta Samhita, over 1100 diseases are mentioned. Over 760 plants are described for remedial purposes. He elaborately described preserving a dead body and its methods. His biggest contribution was in the fields of Rhinoplasty (Plastic surgery specially nose) and ophthalmic surgery (removal of cataracts). It also gives description of 101 instruments used in surgery.
Charak – He is considered as the father of ancient Indian science of medicine. He was the Rajvaidya in the court of Kanishka. His Charak Samhita is a remarkable book on medicine. He was the first to talk about digestion, metabolism, and immunity as important for health and so medical science. He is considered as the father of ‘Ayurveda’.
Patanjali – The science of yoga was developed in ancient India as an allied science of Ayurveda for healing without medicine at the physical and mental levels. The term yoga has been derived from the Sanskrit work Yoktra, meaning “Yoking the mind to the inner self after detaching it from the outer subjects of senses. It defines chitta i.e. dissolving thoughts, emotions, and desires of a person’s consciousness and achieving a state of equilibrium. It sets in motion the force that purifies and uplifts the consciousness to divine realization. Physical yoga is called Hathayoga.
Mental yoga is called Rajayoga.
Scientists in Modern India
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose – (1858-1937) – He did pioneer work in the field of microwaves. He developed the use of galena crystals for making receivers, both for short wavelengths of radio waves and for white and ultraviolet light. In 1895, two years before Marconi's demonstration, Bose demonstrated wireless communication using radio waves, using them to ring a bell remotely and explode some gunpowder.
Many of the microwave components familiar today wave guides, horn antenna’s polarizer’s, dielectric lenses and prisms, and even semiconductor detector’s of electromagnetic radiation from the sun-were invented and used by Bose in last decade of the 19th century. He also suggested the existence of electromagnetic radiation from the sun, which was confirmed in 1944. Bose was knighted in 1917 and soon thereafter elected fellow of Royal society. London (both as physicist and biologist !)
Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920) – was one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century. Much of Ramanujan’s mathematics comes under the field of number theory-the purest realm of mathematics. He made outstanding contribution’s to the analytical number theory, elliptic function, continued fractions, and infinite series. His published and unpublished work has kept some of the best mathematical brains in the world busy to this day.
Sir C.V. Raman (1888–1970) – He made enormous contributions to research in the areas of vibration, sound, musical instruments, ultrasonics, diffraction, photo electricity, colloidal particles, x-ray diffraction, magnetron, dielectric, etc. In particular, his work on the scattering of light during this period brought him worldwide recognition. In 1924 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London. In 1930, he was awarded the Nobel prize for Raman Effect. The GOI conferred upon him its highest award, the Bharat Ratna in 1954.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–1995) – Showed that the maximum mass of a white dwarf star is about 1.44 times that of sun. This is known as the ‘Chandrasekhar limit’ Beyond this limit the star Beyond this limit star becomes unstable.
Chandrasekhar was awarded the Nobel prize for physics in 1983 for his theoretical studies of the physical process process of importance to the structure and evolution of star’s.
Meghnad Saha (1893–1956) – was an Indian astrophysicist best known for his development of Saha education, used to describe chemical and Physical conditions in star’s. He was the first director of the Indian Association For Cultivation Of Sciences (IACS), the oldest research institute in India. In 1947, he established the Institute of nuclear physics, which later was named after him as Saha Institute application of the Saha’s equation was in explaining the spectral classification of star’s.
Sisir Kumar Mitra – The ionosphere has been characterized by different layer’s like F, E,D and C in order of decreasing altitude. The first experimental evidence of E-region of the ionosphere was obtained by Sisir Kumar Mitra and his cowerwor’s in 1930.
Sateyendra Nath Bose (1894–1974) – was a physicist specializing in mathematical physics. In 1924, while working as a reader as the physics, department of University of Dhaka. Bose wrote a paper deriving Planck’s quantum radiation law using a novel way of counting states with identical particles. The result derived by Bose laid the foundation of quantum statistics. The led to the prediction of the existing of a state of matter, which became known as Bose Einstein condensate, a dense collection of bosons. Bose-Einsten condensate was demonstrated to exist by experiment din 1995.
G. N. Ramachandran (1922-2001) – During 1955, while working in the field of biophysics Ramachandran proposed a structure for collagen based on x-ray diffraction and related data. Later it was named ‘two bonded structure’. This structure gave rise to a new idea of using this information for checking any peptide/protein confirmation, which later took shape as Ramachandran map. Ramachandran map is an important tool in any analysis involving protein structure. It is applied to other biopolymer such as nucleic acids and polysaccharides.
Ramachandran also made significant contribution in the field of protein conformation, like stuclies on prolylresidues, hydrogen bonding potential function, and helix and alternating L–and D–residues.
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1893–1972) – was an Indian scientist and applied statistician. He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure. He made pioneering studies in anthropometry in India. He founded the Indian statistical institute and contributed to the design of large-scale sample surveys.
Dr. Har Gobvind Khorana (1922–2011) – Shared the Nobel Prize for medicine and Physiology in 1968 with Marshall Nirenberg and Robert Holley for cracking the genetic code. The established that this code, the biological language common to all living organisms, is spelled out in three. letter words ; each set of threenucleotides codes for a specific amino acid. Dr. Khorana was also the first to synthesize oligonucleotides (strings of nucleotides). Today, oligoncleotides are indispensable tools in biotechnology, widely used in biology labs for sequencing, cloning and genetic engineering.