भारतीय ज्ञान परंपरा | Indian Knowledge Systems

Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta — six schools that reasoned about logic, matter, mind, and the ultimate nature of reality.

Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī — a grammar so precise it reads like algorithm — the science of Sanskrit, and the evolution of Tamil, Marathi, Hindi and India's living languages.

The invention of zero and the decimal place-value system; the Śulva Sūtras; Āryabhaṭa, Brahmagupta and Bhāskārācārya's Līlāvatī; Piṅgala's binary; and the Kerala school's early calculus.

Jyotiṣa and the science of time — the pañcāṅga, eclipse prediction, planetary models from the Āryabhaṭīya, Varāhamihira's work, and the observatories of Jai Singh.

Charaka on medicine and Suśruta on surgery — cataract and plastic surgery a millennium early — the doshas, a vast pharmacopeia, and Patañjali's science of the mind and body.

Sthāpatya-veda and Vāstu Śāstra; the planned cities and drainage of the Indus–Sarasvatī age; and temple science in Nāgara, Drāviḍa and Vesara styles — philosophy carved in stone.

Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra on governance and economy; Vārtā — farming, cattle and trade — as the base of prosperity; the grāma as the centre of the polity; and the king as protector of dharma.

Ancient trade routes by land and sea, guilds and śreṇis, and India as a hub whose prosperity, as one text has it, held the world in thrall.

The Nāṭya Śāstra and the theory of rasa; rāga and tāla; the Hindustani and Carnatic traditions; and the classical dances — Bharatanāṭyam, Kathak, Odissi, Kathakali and more.

The classical literature of Sanskrit and the Indian languages — dṛśya and śravya kāvya — sculpture, painting and iconography, and the aestheticians who asked what gives art its soul.

Crop and seasonal knowledge, and a genius for water — the great tanks and the Ery system of the south — that made Indian agriculture the envy of later European observers.

Cotton and silk, natural dyes, and the finest textiles in the world; Wootz steel, zinc distillation, and iron that has not rusted in sixteen centuries; pottery, jewellery, stone and woodwork.

Civil engineering, shipbuilding and navigation, and the traditions of Dhanurveda — the strategy, weaponry and formations of ancient Indian warfare.

Learning as a way of life — svādhyāya and the guru–śiṣya bond — and an indigenous education so widespread that early-19th-century India was, in Dharampal's phrase, "a beautiful tree."

Hinduism, and the paths born on Indian soil — Buddhism's Four Noble Truths, Jainism's ahiṃsā and anekāntavāda, and Sikhism's Guru Nanak and the Guru Granth Sahib.

How Indian numerals, algebra, astronomy, medicine, metallurgy and textiles reached Asia and Europe — and how Yoga, Āyurveda and Indian arts belong to the whole world today.