BSS questions Isro chief claims, asks why Isro hasn’t used tech from Vedas to build rockets, satellites

BENGALURU: The Breakthrough Science Society (BSS), a collective of scientists and researchers, on Tuesday urged public figures, including administrators of scientific organisations to reflect the ethos of science in their discourse, while terming a recent statement about science in ancient India by Isro chairman S Somanath “an unrealistic claim”.
BSS, in a statement recounted Somanath’s address from the Convocation ceremony at the Maharshi Panini Sanskrit and Vedic University on May 24, and said his talk about achievements of science in ancient India was in “an exaggerated and eulogised manner, creating confusion in the minds of people”.
Somanath was quoted as having said that great developments of science in different branches like metallurgy, astrology, astronomy, aeronautical sciences, physics, etc., took place in ancient India and were later taken to Europe by the Arabs. And that thousands of years later, Europeans brought the same knowledge back to us as discoveries of modern science.
“Great developments in science indeed took place in the Indian subcontinent from around 600 BC to about 900 AD. It is also true that such developments took place in other parts of the world like Mesopotamia, Greece, Egypt, etc., around the same period and even earlier,” BSS said in a statement.
“…Later, the Arabs took the lead, accumulated and preserved knowledge, and through them, it reached Europe. It is through interactions and exchanges that science, or for that matter, any branch of knowledge, develops and grows. It is a cumulative process. Each successive stage builds upon the earlier stage, testing these ideas and discarding those that have been proven wrong. This is the natural course of the development of science. Naturally, the later developments are richer and advanced than the earlier ones,” the statement read.
Pointing out that The Renaissance in Europe marked a new beginning, BSS said modern science, based on observation, hypothesis formation, and experimental verification, started with Galileo.
“This objective method was a qualitatively different stage incomparable to anything in the past. On this sound footing, the triumphant march of science continued with the great contributions of Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, Darwin, Einstein and others. Today’s knowledge based on modern science is far advanced than the ancient knowledge of any civilisation,” the statement read.
The science we have today, BSS said, was the culmination of humanity’s accumulated knowledge and one should respect and regard contributions of great minds in the past, be it the Greeks, Egyptians, Indians, Chinese or Arabs.
“Only a petty mind would think of eulogising achievements of a particular region or section. One simple question to Somanath is: If superior knowledge in astronomy, aeronautical engineering, etc., is available in the ancient texts in Sanskrit, why isn’t Isro using them? Can he show one piece of technology or theory that Isro has taken from the Vedas and applied to make a rocket or a satellite?” BSS said.
“…BSS requests public figures, including administrators of scientific organisations, to reflect the ethos of science in their public discourses because people look up to them as representatives of the scientific community. Science develops through questioning old ideas and unrealistic claims that our ancient knowledge was superior will confuse the students and hamper the development of a scientific bent of mind. This in effect will only retard the progress of science in India,” the statement added.