Ancient India was a place of so many discoveries and beauty. Dating back thousands of years, it was a crucial part of human history, and its civilizations opened the world to new ideologies.
However, with modernity, many people lack basic knowledge of the remarkable technological, historical, educational, and scientific contributions Ancient India made to the world. Today’s article dives into that and shows how advanced this civilization was. So join us on a ride into the past as we explore 25 interesting facts about Ancient India.
History of Ancient India
1. Though many people are familiar with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, they usually leave out Ancient India; this is weird because according to evidential gatherings by scientists, the Indus Valley Civilization, which is a part of Ancient India, was far older than Ancient Egypt, like 2000 years far.
2. Besides being old, the Indus Valley Civilization was far more massive than any other at the time. It extended over 1500 kilometers (900 miles) up the plains of the Indus River and its tributaries.
3. It was also riffled with innovations like structured trade, pottery, and organized cities.
Education, Science, Technology, and Math
4. Ancient India was known for its remarkable education system. It excelled in mathematics, technology, astronomy, and medicine.
Some crucial facts about its learning system, innovators, and innovations include:
5. The surgeon Sushruta, popularly called the father of surgery, who lived around 700 BC, came from Ancient India. He was famous for writing the Sushruta Samhita, a medical instruction manual that guided physicians in performing multiple surgeries.
6. Sushruta’s work was remarkable as he pioneered many surgical procedures, including rhinoplasty (repairing or remaking the nose) and lithotomy (surgical incision into organs like the gall bladder to remove stones). Sushruta’s texts are still.
7. Ancient India was also the birthplace of the number zero. For many years, Indian philosophers had always imagined the idea of zero. All that came together when Brahmagupta defined it and developed methods for using it in mathematical equations.
8. Besides zero, the Indians also popularized the decimal system.
9. Aryabhata was an incredible mathematician and scientist. He developed the place value system for numbers, an idea that spread out of India to become the decimals we all know and hate today.
10. Chess was invented in Ancient India more than 1500 years ago. It was popularly called Chaturanga and involved complex moves to defeat an opponent.
11. Ancient India was a hub for learning politics and military strategy. The Arthashastra, which is about 2300 years old, was an ancient text on statecraft, economic policy, and military strategy. It’s a compilation of the knowledge from multiple authors over centuries.
12. The civilization also used a complex weight system that relied on the Ratti, the weight measurement for a specific seed. The unit was about 0.1215 grams. The Ratti was used for trade and commerce and helped India solve mathematical problems.
Structures
The Great Pyramid of Giza is Ancient Egypt’s symbol of dominance in construction. However, India also had some remarkable constructions.
13. The Great Sanchi Stupa is a marvel of building technology. It was commissioned in the 3rd Century BCE and has withstood the test of time.
14. Other remarkable constructions in Ancient India include the Khajuraho Temples and the Ellora Caves.
15. Though the civilization wasn’t known for creating grand monuments like the Great Pyramids, it was known for using complex design patterns in constructions. Some of these patterns include the 8×8 (64) Vastupurusamandala Manduka grid layout plans and Shikharas.
Astronomy
16. Ancient India was welcoming to many ideas in astronomy. While others argued that the Earth was flat, many astronomers in India had already theorized popular ideas that are used to this day.
Some of them include:
17. Solar calendar: Ancient India started using a solar calendar around 3000 BCE.
18. Many astronomers realized the Sun moved across the skies and marked the different seasons brought about by how the Sun moved.
19. A report from J.A.B. van Buitenen (2008) on Ancient India’s calendar and astronomy system states:
“The oldest system, in many respects the basis of the classical one, is known from texts of about 1000 BCE. It divides an approximate solar year of 360 days into 12 lunar months of 27 (according to the early Vedic text Taittirīya Saṃhitā 4.4.10.1–3) or 28 (according to the Atharvaveda, the fourth of the Vedas, 19.7.1.) days. The resulting discrepancy was resolved by the intercalation of a leap month every 60 months.”
20. Besides knowing about the Sun’s movement and lunar cycles, Ancient astronomers also knew that the stars in the sky were like the Sun. That’s right, they figured out the true nature of stars in medieval times.
Other Cool Ancient India Facts
Other cool, interesting facts about Ancient India include:
21. The invention of the ruler. The Indus Valley Civilization was the first to use standard length measurements in trade and commerce; this length measurement system outdates every other civilization, meaning the Indus created the first ruler.
22. Yoga was also invented in Ancient India around 5000 years ago. It was a ritualistic physical and spiritual practice that aimed to train the body and soul to attain spiritual enlightenment.
23. The oldest religion on Earth, Hinduism, originated from the Indus Civilization. Three other major religions, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, originated from the Indus Besides it.
24. The button was created in the Indus Valley Civilization. It was mostly made from seashells and carved into geometric patterns with holes. The earliest buttons were found in Mohenjo-daro.
25. The Rigveda is one of the oldest religious texts in existence. It’s a collection of 1,028 poems grouped in 10 circles called mandalas. The Rigveda talks about many aspects of existence, including reincarnation.
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed learning 25 cool, fun facts about Ancient India. If you enjoyed the article, don’t forget to leave a comment and share. Also, you can check out our China and Great Pyramids of Egypt articles. You can also search through our Facts Database.
