Indian civilization is the oldest civilization of the world. Recent discoveries show that Indian civilization is more than 8000 years old. Indian civilization more appropriately called as Hindu Civilization was spread over several countries like Afganistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, Srilanka, Bangladesh and so on besides India. Many of these countries are once part of greater India that is Akhanda Bharat. The contributions of Hindus in various fields like astronomy, Metallurgy, Architecture, Navigation, Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Mathematics, Literature, Philosophy ..etc is unparalleled and a challenge to the modern science. Most startling of these was their knowledge about Aircraft technology. Vimanika Sastra (approx 1000 BCE) of Sage Bharadwaj dwelts on types of Aircrafts, materials to be used and their construction. Some of their contributions are mind boggling considering that these were invented / postulated atleast 2000 to 6000 years ago.
A glimpse of their contributions :
Astronomy : Ancient Hindus were first to suggest a heliocentric solar system . Speed of light was calculated as 1,85,016 miles/sec. They had even calculated the distance between Earth and Moon as 108 diameters of Moon and Earth and Sun as 108 diameters of Sun. These figures are very close to the modern day values. All these were stated several thousand years before the famous scientist Galileo postulated in the west that sun was the center of the planetary system and Earth was not flat, which was against the prevailing religious doctrines and he died during his house-arrest by clergy. Another astonishing invention was ancient Hindus calculated the age of Earth as 4.3 billion years. The modern estimate is 4.5 billion years. Just remember that the biblical age of the Earth, as per Chrisitans, is just 6,000 years!.
Mathematics: Contributions of ancient Hindus in field of mathematics is truly marvelous. The decimal system and present day numerals 1 to 9 and zero, which are known as “Hindu Numerals”, were first invented by ancient Hindus. The binary digits of ‘0’ and ‘1’ are so vital for present day digital world, IT and even Internet. They had calculated value of ‘pi’ to 31 digits. Algebraic equations, Permutations and Combinations, pascal triangle, pythogorous theorm .etc were known to them several thousand years before it was known to modern world.
Yoga : If there is one reason why the entire world, irrespective of religion, sect and country, shall bow down before ancient Hindu's wisdom, it is Yoga. Yoga is a god sent gift to the mankind. This five thousand year old health science which was once derided by British imperialists and Christian missionaries to subjugate Hindus and force them to accept superiority of their race, is now accepted world wide as a wonderful solution to most of the heath problems of humans and practiced extensively for stress management. Yoga cures by strengthening the body to win over most of the diseases.