Ujjain: ISRO Chairman, S Somanath, has said that algebra, square roots, concepts of time, architecture, the structure of universe, metallurgy, and even aviation are first found in the Vedas. He said that this knowledge travelled to Europe through Arab countries and was then presented as discoveries of the western world.
S Somanath was speaking at the convocation of the Maharishi Panini Sanskrit and Vedic University in Ujjain when he made his observations on Vedas and Sanskrit language.
ISRO Chairman said that Sanskrit had no script at first. He said, “It was listened to, and learnt by heart, which is how the language survived.” Later Devanagiri script was used.
He praised Sanskrit for being extremely rich in its original and philosophical form. It is also important in the scientific form. He stressed that there is no separation of cultural, spiritual and scientific study in Sanskrit.
Somanath also said that Sanskrit’s syntax and structure make it an ideal language to convey scientific thoughts and processes. He also added that Sanskrit suits the language of computers and for those learning artificial intelligence. He also said that lots of research is being done now on how to use Sanskrit language for computation.
The ISRO Chairman said that as a rocket scientist he was fascinated by an 8th century Sanskrit text, Surya Siddhanta, which talks about the solar system, time-scale, and the size and circumference of Earth.
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