Today’s world has gone beyond reality to understand not everything can be innovated nor invented. There are pretty good number of things already invented which may need some innovation on top of it, or there are too much innovation done on certain invention and that surely need some re-invention which is nothing but an innovation again.
Inventions are always innovative, either it was done 10000 years earlier or today. To me inventions are something that is done entirely new. I have to stress on this statement, because in the recent days, i started reading from people that there is no invention/innovation happening in India, rather we are just copy pasting the western ideas. I believe a smart copy paste is also an innovation. However let me correct their statement, India is the mother nation for many inventions today which are claimed by west.
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Now let us see few of the greatest inventions & discoveries from India
Plastic Surgery:
Plastic Surgeries were carried out in India as early as 800BC. Sushrut & Charaka were the principal contributors to the ancient art and science of Ayurveda, a system of medicine and lifestyle developed in Ancient India. The medical works of both Sushruta and Charaka originally in Sanskrit were translated into the Arabic language in 750 AD. The Arabic translations made their way into Europe via intermediaries.
In Italy the Branca family of Sicily and Gaspare became familiar with the techniques of Sushruta. British physicians traveled to India to see rhinoplasties being performed by native methods. Reports on Indian rhinoplasty performed by a Kumhar vaidya were published in the Gentleman’s Magazine by 1794.
Joseph Constantine Carpue spent 20 years in India studying local plastic surgery methods. Carpue was able to perform the first major surgery in the Western world by 1815. Instruments described in theSushruta Samhita were further modified in the Western world.
Crucible steel:
Around by 200 BC—high quality steel was being produced in southern India, by what Europeans would later call the crucible technique. In this system, high-purity wrought iron, charcoal, and glass were mixed in a crucible and heated until the iron melted and absorbed the carbon.
Archaeological and Tamil language literary evidence suggests that this manufacturing process was already in existence in South India well before the common era, with wootz steel exported from the Chera dynasty and called Seric Iron in Rome, and later known as Damascus steel in Europe.
Microwave Communication:
The first public demonstration of microwave transmission was made by Jagadish Chandra Bose, in Calcutta, in 1895, two years before a similar demonstration by Marconi in England. Bose’s revolutionary demonstration forms the foundation of the technology used in mobile telephony, radars, satellite communication, radios, television broadcast, WiFi, remote controls and countless other applications.
Diamond mining and diamond tools:
Diamonds were first recognized and mined in central India, estimated to be at least 5,000 years ago. India remained the world’s only source of diamonds until 18th century. Diamonds then were exported to other parts of the world, including Europe.
Indian description written at the beginning of the 3rd century describes strength, regularity, brilliance, ability to scratch metals, and good refractive properties as the desirable qualities of a diamond. Today this has become the base for many inventions including the survival of Satellites.
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Chaturanga or Chess:
The precursor of chess originated in India during the Gupta dynasty which literally means an army of four divisions or four corps. Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape. This game was introduced to the Near East from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education of Persian nobility.
Buddhist pilgrims, Silk Road traders and others carried it to the Far East where it was transformed and assimilated into a game often played on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares.
Chaturanga reached Europe through Persia, the Byzantine empire and the expanding Arabian empire. Muslims carried Chaturanga to North Africa, Sicily, and Spain by the 10th century where it took its final modern form of chess.
There are 1000s of more inventions like this in India. Few were claimed and many are not. However, there are smart people around the world who made innovations to our inventions and made it viable for their market & living situations. No inventions are great if they are not viable for the present life usage.
Today what we see in our current start-up eco-system is just the ripple of this simple thought process. People do not want to re-invent something, rather focused in making a better usage of something which are already invented and there born the innovation.
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Lets keep innovating & inventing.
(Disclaimer: This is a guest post submitted on Techstory by the mentioned authors. All the contents and images in the article have been provided to Techstory by the authors of the article. Techstory is not responsible or liable for any content in this article.)
About The Author:
Vimal Singh is an avid writer and mentor of Software Testing and Startups. Believer of new age technologies and innovation. An Entrepreneur and Founder of a Gaming Studio, an Educational Institute and currently an Automobile Care.
An MS Graduate in Software Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology & Science-Pilani with vast experience in IT business handling various roles from a QA to Solution Architect and sales.
