The Vedas are ancient Indian treatises created many centuries before our era. But they store knowledge to the level of which modern science has risen quite recently or even has not yet reached it. What can we learn from the Vedas that have come down to us from time immemorial?
After the creation of the universe
The word veda is translated from Sanskrit as “knowledge”, “wisdom” (compare with Russian “to know” - to know). The Vedas are considered one of the most ancient texts in the world, the earliest cultural monument on our planet.
Indian researchers believe that they were created about 6000 BC, European science dates them to later times. In Hinduism, it is believed that the Vedas are eternal, appeared immediately after the creation of the Universe and were dictated to people directly by the gods.
The Vedas describe many branches of scientific knowledge: for example, medicine - Ayurveda, weapons - Astra Shastra, architecture - Sthapatya Veda, etc. There are also the so-called Vedangs - auxiliary disciplines, which include phonetics, metrics, grammar, etymology and astronomy.
The Vedas tell in detail about very many things, and researchers around the world still find in them various information, unexpected for ancient times, about the structure of the world and man.
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Great mathematicians
It is curious that the secret knowledge of the Vedas aroused surprise and interest even among Soviet scientists, who were alien to all kinds of mysticism. The famous Indologist, academician Grigory Maksimovich Bongard-Levin, in co-authorship with Grigory Fedorovich Ilyin, published the book "India in Antiquity" in 1985, in which he investigated many wonderful facts about science in the Vedas, for example, about algebra and astronomy.
In particular, in Vedanga-jyotish, the role of mathematics (ganita) is highly appreciated in a number of other sciences: "Like a scallop on a peacock's head, like a gemstone crowning a snake, so ganita is at the top of the sciences known in Vedanga."
Algebra is also known in the Vedas - "avyakta-ganita" ("the art of calculating with unknown quantities"), and the geometric method of transforming a square into a rectangle with a given side.
Arithmetic and geometric progressions are also described in the Vedas, for example, they are mentioned in the Pancavimsa-brahmana and Satapatha-brahmana.
It is curious that the famous Pythagorean theorem was also known in the earliest Vedas.
And modern researchers argue that the Vedas contain information about infinity, and about the binary calculus and caching technology (placing data in a specially designated place for accelerated access to them in the future) of data, which is used in search algorithms.
Astronomers from the banks of the Ganges
The level of astronomical knowledge of the ancient Indians can also be judged by the numerous references in the Vedas. For example, religious practices were tied to the phases of the moon and its position on the ecliptic.
The Vedic Indians, in addition to the Sun and the Moon, knew all five planets visible to the naked eye, they knew how to navigate in the starry sky, they connected the stars into constellations (nakshatras).
Complete lists of them are given in the Black Yajurveda and Atharvaveda, and the names have remained practically unchanged for many centuries. The ancient Indian system of nakshatras corresponds to those given in all modern star catalogs.
In addition, the Rig Veda calculated the speed of light with maximum accuracy. Here is a text from the Rig Veda: "With deep respect I worship the sun, which overcomes the distance in 2002 yojana for half a nimesha."
Yojana is a measure of length, nimesha is a unit of time. If you translate yojanas and nimesha into the modern system of calculations, you get the speed of light at 300,000 kilometers per second.
Space knowledge
Moreover, the Vedas are talking about space travel and various aircraft (vimanas) that successfully overcome the earth's gravity.
For example, the Rig Veda tells about a wonderful chariot: "Born without horses, without reins, a praiseworthy three-wheeled chariot travels around space." "The chariot moved faster than thought, like a bird in the sky, rising to the Sun and Moon and descending to Earth with a loud roar …"
Flying fortress
According to ancient texts, the chariot was driven by three pilots, and it could land both on land and on water.
The Vedas even indicate the technical characteristics of the chariot - it was made of several types of metal and worked on fluids called madhu, rasa and anna. The Indian Sanskrit scholar Kumar Kandjilal, the author of the book "Vimanas of Ancient India", claims that rasa is mercury, madhu is alcohol made from honey or fruit juice, anna is alcohol from rice or vegetable oil.
It is appropriate here to recall the ancient Indian manuscript "Samarangana Sutradhara", which also refers to a mysterious chariot flying on mercury:
“His body must be strong and durable, made of light material, like a large flying bird. Inside should be placed a device with mercury and an iron heating device underneath. Through the force that lurks in the mercury, which sets in motion a carrying vortex, a person inside this chariot can fly long distances across the sky in the most amazing way … The chariot develops the power of thunder thanks to mercury. And it immediately turns into a pearl in the sky."
According to the Vedas, the chariots of the gods were of different sizes, including huge ones. Here is how the flight of a huge chariot is described: "Houses and trees trembled, and small plants were uprooted by a terrifying wind, caves in the mountains were filled with roar, and the sky seemed to split into pieces or fall from the tremendous speed and the mighty roar of the air crew …"
Temples in India that copy the appearance of the vimanas
Medicine at the highest level
But not only the cosmos is discussed in the Vedas, they also say a lot about man, his health and biology in general. For example, the Grabha Upanishad talks about the intrauterine life of a child like this:
“An embryo that has lain in the womb day and night is a kind of mixture (like a mess) of elements; after seven days it becomes like a bubble; after two weeks it becomes a clot, and after a month it hardens. After two months, the head area begins to develop; after three months legs; after four - belly and buttocks; after five - the spine; after six - nose, eyes and ears; after seven the embryo begins to rapidly develop its vital functions, and after eight - he is almost a ready little man."
It is worth noting here that European science reached such knowledge in embryology only centuries later - for example, the Dutch doctor Rainier de Graaf discovered ovarian follicles only in 1672.
In the same place, in the Grabha Upanishad, it is said about the structure of the heart: "There are 101 blood vessels in the heart, each of them owns another 100 vessels, each having 72 thousand branches."
And this is not the only amazing knowledge in the ancient books. The union of male and female chromosomes in the zygote was discovered in the 20th century, but they are mentioned in the Vedas, in particular in the Bhagavata Purana. It also tells about the structure and structure of the cell, as well as about microorganisms, the existence of which was discovered by modern science only in the 18th century.
In the Rig Veda there is a text addressed to the Ashvins - it deals with prosthetics and, in general, the success of medicine in antiquity.
And you did, oh multi-useful, so, That the grieving singer began to see well again.
Since the leg was cut off like a bird's wing, You immediately attached an Iron Leg to Vishpala so that she would race to the appointed reward.
And here it is said about a process that is still inaccessible to our medicine - a complete rejuvenation of the body:
… You have stripped the aged covering of the body from Chyavana like a garment.
You have extended the lifespan of the abandoned by all, oh amazing ones.
And they even made him the husband of young wives. Another point is interesting. The Vedas were translated in past centuries, at the level of ideas about the science and technology of that time. It is possible that new translations of ancient texts will reveal to us completely new knowledge that modern science has not yet reached.
Natalya TRUBINOVSKAYA