Ancient Indian Theories of the Earth (An Old and Rare Book)

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Though India had a lead over the world in the development of arts and science in ancient times it lagged behind in the middle ages due to many reasons internal and external as the historians have recorded. The developments at the Universities like Takshasheela and Nalanda were arrested and gave rise to interaction between the subcontinent and mid east in the middle ages. Later, due to the internal squabbles and external invasions the country was totally ruined in its various aspects of polity, science, arts, sociology, economy etc. Towards the middle of the 18th century A.D. the British established their hold and successfully brought India under one administration but at great cost to the country. Then they introduced the western system of education in the country which overshadowed the ancient system of education. The ancient system of education on the lines of Sanskrit Pathasalas included the study of Sanskrit Literature, Grammar, Vedas, Philosophy, Yoga, Astrology, Logic etc. A perusal of the syllabi of these disciplines will at once indicate to us the absence of pure science except perhaps the part of astronomy employed in the study of astrology. Emphasis used to be paid on the study of Vedas on traditional basis with all its adjuncts. Philosophy used to employ logic but with no scientific basis as only the mahavakyas of the Vedas with their import were taken as the basis of argument. What little science in Ayurveda existed that also was never practised in its true form. The Ayurvedic students never entertained research in their discipline.

Similarly, no body was interested in writing an authentic history of the country at least for the Kali age, which has not taken place even to this day. They entirely depended upon the Pauranic literature of a bygone age. Even the mathematic part of astrology was not systematised excepting for books like Lilavati by Bhaskaracarya. Moreover, the students of Indian medicine were enthused searching for an elixir of life and some rasasastris in search for alchemical procedures for making basemetals into gold than systematising the knowledge as done in the western schools. They had the audacity that knowledge was confined to the east and especially in the Vedas and nothing else was there to pursue. Perhaps three is a grain of truth in the statement by some scholars that in the post-Sankara period of India the learned hesitated to pursue positive fields but entertained the arguments of tarke scholars in establishing the truth of the Brahman, specially based on emperical statements in the Vedas. This costed the country dearly and was subjudged by others for centuries. These fields of knowledge became subordinate or secondary with reference to the studies brought from the west. The indigenous knowledge was found to be of little use for pursuing honourable life, excepting for elite purposes. Naturally, people were drawn to the western type of education. That knowledge had a meaning; it used to give them a life with a decent profession. Those who left the Vedic way of life and purused the western type were declared laukikas as different from Vaidikas. These two schools exist ever to this day in our country. The advantages of western learning over the traditional Indian are well known at this juncture of the history.

It gives me pleasure to place these lectures delivered by Dr. S. R. N. Murthy, Ex-Director, Geological Survey of India, Bangalore, in the hands of scholars interested in knowing the contribution of Ancient India to the Discipline of Earth- Science.

Our Centre has been trying and will keep on trying to highlight the contributions of India's past to a particular discipline of human knowledge which is so fortunately preserved in the varieties of Sanskrit Literature. It is upto the scholar of the respective discipline to judge whether such contributions have any relevance to-day and also whether they can make use of those contributions for advancing the knowledge of that particular field of enquiry by giving better insight to them.

The situation has come to such a pass that neither the Sanskritists themselves can do this job of highlighting nor the Scientists themselves can do the same. Only a combined effort of both the Sanskritists and Scientists can yield the desired result.

The present lectures, however, have been delivered by one rare scholar who is a Sanskritist by family tradition and who is a trained Geologist. Thus, these lectures are neither of a pure Sanskritist without the training in Earth-Science nor of a pure Scientist without any access to Sanskrit Literature. Dr. Murthy is both a Sanskrit scholar and a Scientist. I think, this fact has added considerable value to these lectures. I am confident that the readers will be provoked to examine the validity of the claims made by Dr. Murthy and if that is taken up, the labour of Dr. Murthy will be amply rewarded and I too shall feel amply satisfied.

The spectacular advancement in modern science and technology have brought out that the mother earth is a ball of matter (solid, liquid and gaseous) with a diameter of some 8000 miles (or over 12500 km.) set in dynamic motion within the solar system. It succeeds the inferior planets Mercury and Venus and is succeeded by suprior planets Mars, the asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The Sun with all its family members is going round the centre of the milky way spiral galaxy to which it belongs with a speed of about 216 km. per second and will take some 200 million years to complete one rotation. There are numerous galaxies in the visible Universe. The origin of the Universe is estimated to be of some 18000 million years ago, based on the theory of Expanding Universe.

The earth is a true representative of the whole Universe in that it is made up of almost all the elements that are known to be present in the Universe. It has a crust of about 60 km. thickness towards its surface below which it has a mantle upto some 2900 km. from the surface, below which it has its core up to the centre which is generating a magnetic field of the earth. The surface of the earth is covered by watersheet of oceans for 2/3rds extent and the remaining forming continents. Atmosphere envelopes the earth which is in turn is enveloped by the geomagnetic field. Because of the magnetic field the earth has been able to nourish life on it since about 3600 million years, though it is noted to have existed since about 4500 million years, which is the age of the meteorites. While the earth has 1 satellite, Mars has 2. Jupiter has 12, Saturn has 11, Uranus has 5 and Neptune has .

The earth is unique amongst all these planets because of its geomagnetic field which has protected life on it from millions and millions of years. It is the only planet known in the Universe to have life on it, though speculations are extent that life may exist on other similarly evolved planets in our own Milky Way galaxy or in other galaxies of the Universe.