Ancient Indian Inventions

INDIA’S SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WORLD

* Few discoveries were also later done by some westerners

*** Later known as or known to be

# Later by Sir Isaac Newton 1642-1727 later known as Newton’s Law of Motion

# Later confirmed by Galileo Galilei 1564-1642

## More refinement

1. Discovery and use of Zero: Pingalacharya - 200BC

2. Loans and Interests: Vishnusmruthi - 100BC

3. Charging Interests: Vishnusmruthi - 100BC

4. Pythagorus Theorem *: Boudhayana - 700BC

5. Binomial Theorem *: Pingalacharya - 200 BC

6. Geometry in Sulbusutra – II: Boudhayana - 700BC

7. Rules of Bodies in Motion * #: Aryabatta 1 - 499AD

8. Arc and Chord: Aryabatta 1 - 499AD

9. Circle – Value of Phi: Aryabatta 1 - 499AD

9A. Circle – Value of Phi ##: Baskaracharya 1 - 628 AD

10. Triangles: Aryabatta 1 - 499 AD

11. Rotation of Earth II *#: Aryabatta 1 - 499AD

12. Eclipse 1: Aryabatta 1 - 499 AD

13. Four Quadrants of Earth: Aryabatta 1 -499 AD

14. Nrushiysjanam: Aryabatta 1 -499AD

15. Day Diameter: Panchasiddhantika 4 - 505 AD

16. Meridian and Time: Varahamihira

17. Knowledge of Infinity: Baskaracharya 11 in 600 AD and refined by Bharmaguptha in 1148 AD same were republished by Albert Einstein 1879-1955

18. Use of Ratio and Proportion: Baskaracharya 1 – 628 AD

19. Use of Fractions: Baskaracharya 1 – 628 AD

20. Partnership and Shares: Baskaracharya 1 – 628 AD

21. Progression of Type 1 Sq +2Sq +3Sq + 4Sq: Bhaskaracharya 1 - 628 AD

22. Progression of Type 1Cu + 2C+3Cu+ 4Cu: Bhaskarachrya 1 – 628 AD

23. Triangles (Quiz) Baskara 1 – 628 AD

24. Rotation of Earth 1: Bharmaguptha – 629 AD

25. Place Values 1: Vyasa Bhashya to Yoga Sutra – 650 AD

26. Parallax II: Lallacharya – 700 AD

27. Parallax III: Lallacharya – 700 AD

28. Apogee, Perigee and Orbit of Earth: Lallacharya – 700 AD

29. Appearances of Circumference of Earth: Lallacharya – 700 AD

30. Shape of Earth: Lallacharya – 700 AD

31. Globe: Varahamihira – 505 AD

32. Meridian and Time: Baskara 1 – 628 AD

33. Eclipse 11: Lallacharya – 700 AD

34. Eclipse 111: Lallacharya – 700 AD

35. Angular Dimensions: Vateswara – 880 AD

36. Horizon: Vateswara – 880 AD

37. Astronomical Definitions: Vateswara – 880 AD

38. Equator: Vateswara – 880 AD

39. 6 o’ Clock Circle: Vateswara – 880 AD

40. Circle of Diurnal Moon: Vateswara – 880 AD

41. Day Radius: Vateswara – 880 AD

42. Ecliptic: Vateswara – 880 AD

43. Setting point of Ecliptic: Vateswara – 880 AD

44. Rising – Setting line: Vateswara – 880 AD

45. Day Radius and Earth sine: Vateswara – 880 AD

46. Sun’s Prime Vertical: Vateswara – 880 AD

47. Progression of Type En + En Sq + En Cu: Sreedharacharya – 900 AD

48. First Degree Indeterminate Equation: Sreedharacharya – 900 AD

49. Newton Gauss: Vateswara – 904 AD (Later by Newton in 1670)

50. First Order Equation – II: Sreedharacharya – 990 AD

51. Equations of Higher Order -1: Sreedharacharya – 990 AD

52. Permutations and Combinations -1: Sridaracharya – 990 AD

53. Interest Calculation: Sreedharacharya – 990 Ad

54. Meeting place of the two surfaces: Aryabatta 1 – 499 AD

55. Meridian: Sankaranarayana 1 – 950 AD

56. Eclipse -1: Sankaranarayana 1 – 950 AD

57. Knowledge of Infinity: Bharmaguptha & Baskaracharya II – 600 & 1148 AD

58. Permutations and Combination II: Baskaracharya II – 1114 AD

59. Calculations with Zero: Sripati – 1039 AD

60. First Order Equation -1: Bhaskaracharya II- 1114 AD

61. Equations of higher Order –II: Bhaskaracharya II – 1114 AD

62. Area of Circle and Sphere: Baskaracharya II- 1114 AD

63. Polygonal: Baskara II – 1114 AD

64. Length of Arc – Chord: Baskara II – 1114 AD

65. Arc and Arrow: Baskara II- 1114 AD

66. Volumes of Cones: Baskara II – 1114 AD

67. Gravity: Baskara II – 1114 AD

68. Use of Average Values: Baskaracharya II – 1150 AD

69. Gregory’s calender: Madhava – 1350 AD (in 1632 by Pope Ugo Buoncompagni Gregory XIII)

70. *** De Molvre’s (1650 AD) Approximation: Madhavacharya – 1350 AD

71. ***Lhuiler’s (1782 AD) Formula: Madhavacharya – 1350 AD

72. *** Lebnitz (1673 AD) Power Series: Puthumana Somayaji – 1440 AD

73. ***Taylor (1685 AD) Series of Sine and Cosine: Nilakanta – 1444 AD

74. *** Newton’s Infinite GP Convergent series: Nilakantha- 1444 AD

75. Somayaji’s Theorems: Puthumana Somayaji – 1450 AD

76. Arc & Chord: Puthumana Somayaji – 1450 AD

77. Sine, Cosine, Radius and Arc: Puthumana Somayaji – 1450 AD

78. *** Newton’s (1660 AD) Power Series: Puthumana Somayaji – 1450 AD

79. Velocity of Planets per Day: Puthumana Somayaji – 1450 AD

80. Place Values – II: Sankaracharya – Year unknown

81. Tycho Brahe Reduction of Ecliptic: Achyuta Pisharoti – Year Unknown

82. Parallax -1: Lallacharya – Year Unknown

Inventions by Indian Scientists and later by Western Scientists:

Word in Red are by Indians and black by Westerners

1.    BHOUDHAYANA – 700 BC -> Pythagoras Theorem: Pythagoras – 500 BC

& Proof of Pythagoras Theorem: Euclid – 300 BC

2.    SUSRUTHA – 700 BC-> Cataract Operation : Joseph Lister – 1600 AD

lithotomy: Marios Santos – 1600 AD

Plastic Surgery: Joseph Constantine – 1814 AD

Nose Surgery: Gasparo Tag Cozzi – 1600 AD

Caesarean:

Amputation:

Organ Transplant:

Artificial implantation of organs:

Surgical Instruments:

Anastasia:

3.    KANAPPAR (Year Not known) : Eye Transplant

4.    GOUTHAMA - 300 BC -> *** Evolution Theory: Charles Robert Darwin – 1800 AD

*** Wave Nature of Sound: Hyghen – 1700 AD

5. KANAADA – 300 BC - > *** Atomic Theory: John Dalton (1766-1844) – 1822 AD

6. CHARAKA – 300 BC - > *** Blood Circulation: William Harvey (1578-1657) – 1656 AD

*** Micro Organisms: Lewis Pasture: 1822 AD

7. ARYABHATTA -1 - 476 AD ->

*** Spherical Shape of Earth: Galileo Galilei – 1564 AD

*** Revolution of Earth: Kepler – 1571 AD

*** Apogee: Kepler

*** Sine & Cosine: DeMolvre’s

*** Diameter of Earth: Copernicus – 1473 AD

*** Value of Pie: Lindemann – 1882 AD

*** Square Root Determination: Cantanew – 1546 AD

8. VARAHAMITRA – 505 AD ->

Comets: Haley – 1656 AD

9. BRAMAGUPTHA – 628 AD ->

*** Style’s Equation: Style – 1600 AD

*** Positive integral: DeMolvre’s – 1667 AD

*** Sterling Formula: Sterling – 1642 AD

*** Newton’s Sterling Interpolation: Newton / Sterling

*** Equation for Area for Cyclic Quadrilateral: W. Shell – 1619 AD

*** Equation for Radius of Cyclic Quadrilateral: Lhuiler – 1782 AD

*** Intermediate Equation of Second Degree: Langrange – 1560

10. GOVINDASWAMIN – 800 AD - >

*** Newton Gauss Forward:

*** Interpolation Formula: NEWTON / GAUSS

11. LALLACHARYA – 748 AD - >

*** Perigee: Kepler

12. VATESWARA – 860 AD ->

*** Newton Gauss Backward:

*** Interpolation Formula: Newton / Gauss

13. BHASKARA II - 1114 AD ->

*** Gravity: Newton

*** Cyclic Method: Galois – 1600 AD

*** Inverse Cyclic Method: Euler – 1600 AD

*** Differential Calculus: Newton

*** Rolle’s Theorem: Rolle – 1646 AD

*** Theory of Continued Fraction: Sanderson

*** Pellian Equation: Deoron Pale – 1660 AD

14. MADHAVA – 1350 AD - >

*** Taylor Sine Cosine Series: Taylor – 1685 AD

*** Lebnitz Series: Lednitz – 1642 AD

*** Gregory’s series of Arc: Gregory

*** Lednitz Infinite: Lebnitz

15. PARAMESWARA – 1360 AD ->

*** Lhuiler Formula: Lhuiler – 1782 AD

16. NILAKANTHA – 1440 AD - >

*** Infinite GP Series: Newton

*** Lebnitz Power Series: Lebnitz

17. SAYANA – 1400 AD - >

*** Velocity of Light: Newton – 1642 AD

18. PUTHUMANA SOMAYAJI – 1440 AD ->

*** DeMolvre’s Infinite Series: DeMolvre’s

19. ACHYUTHA PISHAROTI – 1530 AD - >

*** Tycho – Brahe Reduction: Tycho Brahe – 1546 AD

THESE ARE MY  CONSCIENTIOUS COLLECTION OF DATA FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. 

Lost Railway Station of Rameswaram Road (Puthu Road). A Metre Gauge station.

In the annals of India’s railway history lie countless forgotten halts and abandoned alignments, but few are as poignant as the tale of the lost station of Rameswaram Road, otherwise called Puthu Road. Once a modest node on the fabled Indo–Ceylon route, this station bore silent witness to the intertwining destinies of South India and Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), until nature’s fury and political upheavals consigned it to oblivion.

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A Journey into the Past

My own acquaintance with this vestige occurred during a recent visit to Pamban Island. Though I had traversed these shores before, it was only on this occasion that I embarked upon a deliberate quest to trace the erstwhile metre-gauge line that once ran from Pamban Junction to Dhanushkodi Pier. Beyond this terminus, the voyage continued not on rails but by steamer across the Palk Strait to Thalaimannar in Ceylon, and thence by rail again to Colombo and other colonial towns.

This seamless intermodal journey — train, steamer, train again — embodied the very idea of connected civilisations. It was not merely transport but a bridge of culture, commerce, and kinship.

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The Demise of the Indo–Ceylon Ferry

Alas, the Indo–Ceylon ferry service, already weakened by the cataclysmic cyclone of 1964, finally met its demise in 1984, following assaults by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In the post-1964 interregnum, the service had shifted to Rameswaram’s fishing harbour, yet the romance of the old alignment was never recaptured.

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Encounter with a Vanished Station

En route to Kodandaramar Temple near Mukundarayar Chathiram, my auto-rickshaw driver — a veritable oral historian in his own right — revealed to me the ghostly remains of this lost station. Local lore identifies it as Rameswaram Road or Puthu Road, an outpost that once bore the bustle of pilgrims and traders alike. Today, little survives but the pedestal of a solitary water tank, a mute sentinel of what was washed away on 26 December 1964 by the infamous cyclone.

This station had served not only Rameswaram town but also travellers who sought an alternative to the principal Rameswaram station. Its alignment cut diagonally towards Pamban Junction, a modest geometry of steel that once connected two worlds.

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The Cyclone Tragedy of 1964

The tragedy of 22 December 1964 is writ large in the memory of India’s railways. At precisely 23:55 hours, train no. 653 — the Pamban Junction–Dhanushkodi Passenger — carrying 110 passengers and five railway staff, was engulfed by the fury of storm and surge while entering Dhanushkodi station. In a matter of minutes, all 115 souls perished, swept away by tidal waves of apocalyptic force. Sic transit gloria mundi — thus passes the glory of the world.

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The Highway that Replaced the Rails

By 1990, whatever vestiges of the metre-gauge line still lingered were uprooted. The alignment metamorphosed into a two-lane artery of the modern republic: National Highway 55 (formerly NH 49). Motorcars now speed over what was once the passage of the Indo–Ceylon Express, blithely unaware of the ghosts that haunt their tarmac.

Location of the station shown in map : 

The Steamer Connection: S.S. Irwin

Integral to this Indo–Ceylon link was the steamer S.S. Irwin, the stalwart vessel that plied between Dhanushkodi and Thalaimannar. Built in 1929 and commissioned in 1930, she measured 259 feet in length and 38 feet across the beam, with a tonnage of 970.11 gross and 377.39 registered. Her capacity, inclement weather, was an impressive 1,552 passengers, reduced to 1,045 in turbulent seas. Cruising at approximately 10 knots, she was not merely a ship but a floating bridge between two nations.

The very name “Boat Mail” evokes nostalgia: a train from Madras (now Chennai) connecting seamlessly with a steamer to Ceylon, an imperial choreography of rail and sail.

S S Irwin model: 

 
Lost railway line :

The British Military Stamp

Among the archaeological remains are iron sleepers stamped with the abbreviation M&SMB, believed to signify the Material and Systems Management Branch of the British Indian Army. Such insignia hint that this line was not only civil infrastructure but also carried strategic import, binding together the colonial territories in times of war and peace.

Epilogue: The Vanishing of Memory

Today, nothing remains of Puthu Road station save the echoes of recollection. Once scattered relics whispered of a railway that stitched together India and Ceylon, of a community obliterated by cyclone, and of a maritime corridor since supplanted by the prosaic highway. Yet even those vestiges, which lingered for decades to tantalise the railway antiquarian, were erased by 2023. The last iron sleepers, embankments, and tell-tale remnants were swept aside in the name of progress and road expansion.

What endures now is not masonry nor metal, but memoria alone — oral traditions, fading photographs, and the imagination of those who cherish India’s railway past. In contemplating this forgotten station, one confronts the memento mori of human endeavour: that all our grandest infrastructures, like the very empires that built them, are but transient.

Thus, the tale of Rameswaram Road (Puthu Road) is no mere footnote; it is a chapter in the palimpsest of history, awaiting rediscovery by each pilgrim who dares to listen, even when the land itself has effaced its traces.

Original blog first published: December 2015.
Photographs and archival data: All rights reserved. Please seek prior permission before reproduction or use. 

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#IndianRailways #MetreGauge #LostStations #BoatMail #RailwayHistory #MaritimeHeritage

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#ColonialHistory #JamesRennell #BritishIndia #IndoCeylonLink #ForgottenHistory

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