12 Unknown Facts about Ancient India That Will Mesmerize You

India is a land of such diversity that no two languages are alike. Every state of India 29 in all are steeped in a history and culture of their own. The focus here is on the history and culture of a country that is fascinating in more ways than one. Besides boasting of an amazing geography and topography that gives you some of the most beautiful places in the world, India’s Vedic history is equally mesmerizing for its concepts of fact taught through spiritual verse, mythology and education alike. India gave the world one of the greatest disciplines and that is Yoga. Dive deeper into the holistic aspects of Yoga and you get the concepts of spiritual cleansing and the chakras of energy. But apart from all this, you’ll be amazed to know that found in various literature, educational works, and mythology of the ancient Vedic period of India are facts, concepts, and ideas that bear an uncanny similarity to present day technology. Read on and be mystified.

1The Mahabharata Mentions the Concept of Cloning

Very much like the Odyssey and the Illiad are India’s two greatest epics called the Mahabharata and The Ramayana. Guess what? The Mahabharata being the story of two warring clans of cousins explains how one lineage was born through the concept of cloning. According to the narrative of the scripture, Ghandhari the mother of the clan called the Kauravas bore 100 sons. It explains that an embryo (a piece of flesh as depicted in the epic) was taken from her womb and split into a 100 parts and each part was placed into a container which was buried and later gave rise to a child or rather a fetus. Well?? It does bear a lot of similarity to IVF reproduction of today.

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Karna: Another example of cloning

Karan or Karna is another character in the Mahabharata who belonged to the Pandava clan and as the story concerning his mother Kunti goes; his birth was the result of being “born from the “characteristics adopted from men of her choice”. Clearly a reference to cloning.

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2Sushruta Samhita: One of the oldest medical and surgical encyclopedias known to mankind

Although a sacred medical Vedic text known as the Atharva Veda exists dating back to the early Iron Age, it is the Sushruta Samhita that has baffled historians and medical experts alike. The Vedic work is a detailed medical treatise written in the 6th century BC. It contains 184 chapters of disease, illness and procedures including surgery to treat illness promote well being and health and prolong life.

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The text describes precision surgical instruments

The scripture discusses 1,120 illnesses, 64 mineral preparations, 54 preparations based on animal sources, and 700 medicinal plants. The author Sushruta is widely regarded as being the first human to perform surgeries where several various precision surgical instruments are also described in the text.

The Sushruta Samhita also discusses embryology, the human anatomy and even venesection. How to position the patient for each vein and how to protect the vital structures of the body. Evidence of dental surgery dating back 9000 years was discovered in a place called Mehrgarh along with orthopedic surgical procedures.

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3The first to acknowledge the existence of the Solar System

History, of course, credits Copernicus for the heliocentric concept of the solar system but it was the Rig Veda that first spoke of the model of the solar system with the sun as the center around which planets rotated.

“Sun moves in its orbit which itself is moving. Earth and other bodies move around sun due to force of attraction, because sun is heavier than them.” - Rig Veda 1.164.13

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Another reference to the solar system

“The sun moves in its own orbit but holding earth and other heavenly bodies in a manner that they do not collide with each other through force of attraction.” - Rig Veda 1.35.9

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4Ancient India already knew the speed of light

A Vedic Scholar called Sayana who lived in the 14th century was quoted as describing

"With deep respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha."

According to Vedic measurement, 1 yojana is approx 8 -9 miles. 1 nimesha is 16/75 of a second. Thus 2,202 x 9 x 75/8 = 185,794 miles per second or 299,000 km per second. Scientifically the speed of light is 299,792.46 Km per second. If you are smirking at the mistake of 792 then aren’t they allowed some leeway given the fact the speed of light that was only accurately measured in 1676? As for the scholar Sayana?? His source was the Vedas.

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