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Ancient Hindu Scientists – A List of Ancient Hindus Who Contributed Immensely to Science

Science was not anathema to ancient Hindus. Hindu religion always encouraged scientific spirit and this is the reason why Hinduism has stood up to the challenges of modern science better than any other religion. Here is a list of ancient Hindu scientists whose contribution to modern science and mathematics can never be ignored.

Baudhayana
Lived around 800 BC
Subject – Mathematics
Books – Sulbasutra – contains calculation of pi, Pythagoras theorem, circling the square, square root of 2 etc
His contribution – calculating pi

Susruta
Lived around 600 BC
Subject – Medicine – Surgery – Plastic Surgery – Rhinoplasty
Books – Susruta Samhita – mentions about over 1100 disease including fevers of 26 types, 8 types of jaundice, 20 kind of urinary complaints. More than 760 medicinal plants are recorded in the work.
His contribution – Father of plastic surgery.


Acharya Kanad
Lived around 600 BC
His contribution – originated the idea of atom an indestructible particle of matter (Paramanu or anu)

Acharya Charaka
Lived around 300 BC
Subject – Ayurveda
Books – Charaka Samhita – the most ancient and authoritative work on Ayurveda.
His contribution – First to discuss the role of digestion, metabolism and immunity in maintaining good health.

Aryabhatta
Lived around (476 – 550 AD)
Subject – Mathematics and Astronomy
Books – Aryabhattiya – summary of the mathematics of his time.
His contribution
Zero and place value system in Mathematics,
explanation of lunar eclipse and solar eclipse,
rotation of Earth on its axis,
reflection of light by moon,
sinusoidal functions,
solution of single variable quadratic equation,
value of π correct to 4 decimal places,
circumference of Earth to 99.8% accuracy,
calculation of the length of sidereal year

Varahamihira
Lived around 6th Century AD
Subject – Mathematics, Astronomy and Astrology
Books – Pancha-Siddhantika
His contribution – A version of Pascal's triangle and worked on magic squares.

Bhaskara I
Lived around 7th Century AD
Subject – Mathematics and Astronomy
Books – Aryabhaitiyabhasya
His contribution – Gave a unique and remarkable rational approximation of the sine function
Representation of numbers in a positional system.

Brahmaguta –
Lived around 7th Century AD
Subject – Mathematics and Astronomy
Books – Sulbasutra – contains calculation of pi, Pythagoras theorem, circling the square, square root of 2 etc
His contribution – Rules to compute with zero
Solution to linear equation and general quadratic equation
Formula for cyclic quadrilaterals.

Lalla
Lived around 750 AD
Subject – Mathematics and Astronomy
Books – Shishyadhividdhidatantra
His contribution – Application of mathematics to astronomy

Sridhara
Lived around 9th century AD
Subject – Mathematics
Books – Ganitasara and Ganitapanchavimashi
His contribution – first to give a formula for solving quadratic equations.


Bhaskara II – Bhaskaracharya
Lived in 12th Century AD
Subject – Mathematics and Astronomy
Books – Siddhanta Shiromani,
His contribution – Discovery of the principles of differential calculus and its application to astronomical problems and computations.

Madhava –
Lived (1350 AD to 1425 AD)
Subject – Mathematics
His contribution - Important advances in infinite series including finding the expansions for trigonometric functions.

Chitrabhanu –
Lived during the 16th century
Subject – Mathematics
His contribution - Gave integer solutions to twenty-one types of systems of two algebraic equations.