What are some interesting facts about Ancient India?

India has been the land of valley, sages, religion, values and culture. India is the most amazing nation of the World. There are lot of mind blowing facts about India which are not yet known and famous. India is a country that can boast of places with great things, facts & culture. Here's a collection of some jaw-dropping, incredible facts from around the India.

Lets have a look at the Incredible Things You Need To Know About India:

1. Science behind eclipses was explained in the 5th century.

In the past history, Aryabhata correctly explained the phenomenon of occurrence of the lunar eclipse and the solar eclipse. Aryabhatiya, written in 499 AD, is the oldest extant Indian work with alphabet numerals.

2. Sushruta Samhita - Oldest medical and surgical encyclopedia

Sushruta (c. 7th or 6th century BCE) was a physician in ancient India. Well widely known today as the “Father of Indian Medicine” and “Father of Plastic Surgery” for inventing and developing surgical procedures. His work on the subject, the Sushruta Samhita (Sushruta's Compendium) is considered one of the oldest text in the world on plastic surgery. It is highly regarded as one of the Great Trilogy of Ayurvedic Medicine; the other two being the Charaka Samhita, which preceded it, and the Astanga Hridaya, which followed it.

He significantly developed different surgical techniques (for instance using the head of an ant to sew sutures) and, most notably, invented the practice of cosmetic surgery.

3.  'Zero' number was invented way back in the 5th century

0 (zero) is both a number & the numerical digit used to represent that number in numerals. The number 0 fulfills a central role in maths as the additive identity of the integers, real numbers, and several other algebraic structures. The most important mathematical invention till date is 'zero.' Indians have been playing with numbers as early as 2nd century BC. One of the famous Mathematicians "Aryabhata" was the first person to create a symbol for "0" (zero). Mathematical operations like addition and subtraction started after that. The origin of the modern decimal place system developed in India way back around100 BC.

4. Existence of gravity was accounted in the Religious Texts- Vedas

In physics, theories of gravitation postulate mechanisms of interaction governing the movements of bodies with mass. There have been countless theories of gravitation since ancient times. Ancient Indian scholars had figured out the concept of gravity way ahead of Newton.

The theory of gravitation was created 1200 years before Newton by an Indian Mathematician Bhaskaracharya.

5. Circumference of Earth

Sadly, Greeks enjoy the credit for this discovery, while it was Aryabhata, who deduced a formulation proving that the Earth is rotating on an axis. He introduced the concept and estimated the value of pi (3.1416). He then concluded that the circumference of Earth was approximately 39,736 kilometers. The actual circumference of Earth, as deduced by scientists today, is 40,075 kilometers.

6. Hanuman Chalisa' precisely calculates the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

Goswami Tulsidas, who was a great devotee of Lord Ram, wrote Hanuman Chalisa describing the greatness of Lord Hanuman (Bajrangbali) in the text- Ramayana. It was written in ‘Awadhi‘ language during early C16th and Chalisa word is derived from ‘Chalis‘, which means '40'.

Hanuman Chalisa has 40 verses and in one line, it describes the approximate distance between Sun and Earth. Tulsidas recounts this incident in his Hanuman Chalisa as follows:

"Juga Sahastra Yojana Par Bhanu, Leelyo Taahi Madhura Phala Jaanu" which means that Hanumanji jumped for the Sun, thinking it is a sweet fruit, which is at a distance of Juug Sahastra Yojans (distance unit in Hindi), The Sun which was at a distance of Twelve Thousand divine Miles,

You tried to swallow it (the Sun), thinking it to be a Sweet Fruit.

Here, Yuga means the sum of Four Yugas (1 complete Mahayuga) with unit in divine years.

Satyuga = 4800 divine years

Tretayuga = 3600 divine years

Dwaparyuga = 2400 divine years

Kaliyuga = 1200 divine years

So, 1 divine Yuga is 12,000 divine years.

In Sanskrit, Sahasra means 1000 and 1 Yojana is equal to approximately 8 miles.

So, 12,000 x 1000 x 8 = 96,000,000 miles.

7. Speed of light was discovered in India as early as the 14th century.

Studies reveal that speed of light was determined accurately in Rig Veda 1000 years ago and was further elaborated by Sayana, a Vedic scholar in the 14th century.

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

1 yojana is estimated to be in between 8-9 miles

1 yojana = 9 miles

1 nimesha = 16/75 of a second

Hence, 2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75/8 nimeshas = 185,794 miles per second = 2,99,000 kilometers per second.

That's astonishingly close to the real 'scientifically-proven' speed of light which is 3,00,000 kilometers per second.

8. First Aroplane

Eight years before the wright bro's aerial show, in India, in the year 1895, at Chowpaty beach, Bombay, a aircraft flew in the skies upto 1500 ft, when the large Indian Audience watched this feat. This performance took place in presence of Highness Maharaja of Baroda, Sri Sayaji Rao Gaikwad and honorable judge Mahadev Govind Ranade. This event was covered and then published by a popular newspaper “Kesari” which was published in Pune.

The centenary year of the first successful flight, by the Wright brothers, was celebrated from December 17, 2003. But our own pioneer from Mumbai, Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, made an aircraft and had flown it eight years earlier. One of Talpade''s students, P Satwelkar, has chronicled that his craft called ''Marutsakha''(Friend of the Winds) flew unmanned for a few minutes and came down.

In short own pioneer from Mumbai, Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, made an aircraft and had flown it eight years earlier. One of Talpade''s students, P Satwelkar, has chronicled that his craft called ''Marutsakha''(Friend of the Winds) flew unmanned for a few minutes and came down.

Talpade belonged to the Pathare Prabhu community, one of the founder of Mumbai. According to aviation historians Mr Talpade used his knowledge of the Rig Vedas to build a plane. Orville and Wilbert Wright accomplished their feat in California on December 17,1903. Their flight lasted for 37 seconds.