Van Huyssteen J.W. (editor) Encyclopedia of Science and Religion

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HINDUISM,CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND RELIGION

— 401—

HINDUISM,CONTEMPORARY

ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND

RELIGION

Modern science was brought to India during the

1800s by the British as a part of the colonization

process. The goal of science in the colony was not

the advancement of science but rather the explo-

ration of natural resources, flora, and fauna to feed

the needs and demands of Britain and its ongoing

industrial revolution. In the colonial context of

India there was also discrimination against deserv-

ing Indian scientists who were relegated to posi-

tions below their entitlement and paid half the

salary of their British counterparts.

Scientists in modern India can be divided into

three categories. First there were transplanted Eu-

ropean scientists employed by the British govern-

ment who served as “gatekeepers” of colonial sci-

ence. In the second category were British scientific

personnel called by the colonial administration to

undertake specific tasks. They had no commitment

to the advancement of science in India. When

these scientists completed their assignments, they

returned home taking with them their knowledge

and experience. A third category was composed of

Indian scientists who became prominent after the

1870s. They were supported by a small group of

British settler scientists and Christian missionaries

who devoted themselves to the establishment of

professional science in India. They numbered a

few hundred including such key persons as David

Hare, Eugene Lafont, William Carey, Prafulla Chan-

dra Ray, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Chandrasekhara

Venkata Raman, Meghnad N. Saha, and Mahendra

Lal Sircar. While scientists in the first two categories

were part of the colonial enterprise, it was the third

group that struggled to transform colonial struc-

tures and create an indigenous and autonomous

culture of science in India.

Within Hinduism, during the same time period,

the Hindu reformer Swami Vivekananda (1863–

1902) was revising Hindu thought to accommodate

European rationality and science. Among the Ben-

gali intelligentsia of the late nineteenth century it

was widely felt that science as a method of obtain-

ing knowledge about humans and nature was the

key to human progress. Therefore, all systems of

thought, including religion, needed to be validated

by reason and science. Following the lead of earlier

Brahmo Samaj thinkers such as Keshub Chandra Sen

(1838–1884), Vivekananda attempted to show the

compatibility of Hindu Advaita philosophy with sci-

ence. Continued efforts in contemporary Hindu

studies to draw analogies between Advaita and sci-

ence are evidence of Vivekananda’s influence. Just

as science allows for the discovery of physical laws

through the application of the scientific method, so

also said Vivekananda, the rsis or seers who wrote

the Vedas are the discoverers of spiritual laws.

Rather than depending for their authority on their

status as revelation, the Vedas can be shown to be

timeless impersonal laws (like the law of gravity)

that one accepts not on the basis of faith but by test-

ing out and proving for oneself in one’s own expe-

rience (just as the scientist does in verifying, by ex-

periment, the discoveries of others.) Thus, the

Advaita teaching on the realization of knowledge of

Brahman (brahmajñ1na) is, according to Vive-

kananda, a method, like the scientific method, for

the discovery of spiritual facts. Although one must

begin with reliance on the Veda, one must eventu-

ally go beyond such a faith basis and prove the

truths of the Vedas in personal experience. For

Vivekananda, this method of attaining one’s own

spiritual knowledge is based on the Yoga of Patan-

jali (c. 200 B.C.E–200

C.E.), with its focus on the di-

rect experience of truth, and is parallel to the proc-

ess of attaining and verifying knowledge in science.

Following the lead of Vivekananda, Hindu

philosophers and theologians typically see them-

selves as presenting an approach in which spiritual

and scientific knowledge coalesce, and through

which they can win back their selfhood. For Hin-

duism the European scientific and technological

tradition cannot be ignored or rejected, but must

be absorbed and “worked-through” until the heart

of Hinduism is reclaimed. This “working-through”

is manifesting itself in contemporary cosmology

and applied sciences such as medicine, ecology,

and genetic engineering.

Cosmology

Hindu thinkers approach the still unresolved mys-

tery of the universe by looking back to Brahman

(the Divine) as somehow associated with the cre-

ation or production of the universe. Scientific the-

ory has speculated that the universe may arise

from a quantum vacuum state, which is a peculiar

mixture of emptiness and activity. Ancient sages,

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say Hindu thinkers, had similar thoughts. The San-

skrit concept of zero, when applied to Brahman, is

identified with both fullness and emptiness. Zero

also makes possible advances in mathematics and

modern digital technology. The universe is onto-

logically characterized by the term Brahman from

the root brh “to expand.” The risis thought of the

universe as an “expanding Brahman,” which is

consistent with contemporary cosmological think-

ing. The current idea of a Big Bang in which very

dense matter explodes into an expanding universe

is seen to be prefigured by the Upanishadic notion

bindu—a dimensionless point that is a unity of

both static and dynamic forces, the dynamic ex-

pressing itself as the universe of multiplicity while

essentially remaining a unity or order (rta). Or, as

cosmologists put it, about 100 billion stars, includ-

ing the sun, make up the Milky Way galaxy, a spi-

ral wheel-shaped structure. This galaxy is part of a

group of galaxies that form a cluster, while clusters

in turn form superclusters of many thousands of

galaxies. Cosmologists suggest that this pattern of

hierarchical clustering prevails throughout the cos-

mos with gravitational forces holding the whole

thing together. This contemporary theorizing re-

calls the Upanishadic words of the rsi Yajñvalkya

to his pupil Aruni: “This world and the next world

and all beings and all natural phenomena are

strung together by the thread, the Inner Controller,

the Immortal, the Brahman.” (Brhad-arañyaka Up-

anishad III:7:3).

The vast collection of Hindu scripture leaves

ample room for speculations as to ancient Vedic

precursors of the latest thinking in India’s strong

scientific traditions in mathematics and astronomy,

represented by the outstanding twentieth-century

mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920),

and Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888–1970),

the 1930 Nobel prize winner in physics. As A. K.

Bag shows, contemporary Indian excellence in

mathematics and astronomy may be traced back to

the Vedic concerns with the correct construction of

strangely shaped altars and the correct astronomi-

cal time for the conducting of both individual and

social events (p.186).

Medicine

British colonization brought to India modern West-

ern medicine, where it met Ayurveda or traditional

Indian medicine, which traces itself back to the

Vedas. Modern medicine, and its assumption of

René Descartes’s mind-body dualism, has often

viewed the body as a mechanical object to be ex-

ercised, fed, and kept in order with drugs and the

miracles of modern technology. By contrast, tradi-

tional Indian medicine sees the person as a sacred

entity, a microcosm corresponding to the whole

cosmological order. Consequently all Hindu think-

ing about the person and, to take an example,

one’s reproductive activity takes place within the

larger context of the divine-human cosmos. To

study the health of the Hindu bather who goes to

the river at daybreak, one must include the

mantras chanted, the purifying experience of the

body in water, the vegetarian sattvic quality of the

food eaten, and so on—a gestalt of human-within-

nature/culture/religion analysis. The Western

mechanistic view of the isolated body was held by

British medicine to be the scientific replacement

for the sense of the healthy person as a unity of

body, mind, and environment as maintained by

Hindu medicine. In the attempted superimposition

of British ways upon India, the colonization of the

body by modern Western medicine was a key

strategy, especially when it assumed the right to

define health and illness, and a monopoly to treat

the latter. This particular colonization did not suc-

ceed, however, for many Hindus continue to prac-

tice Ayurveda and homeopathy alongside modern

biomedicine.

A second colonization of the body is that of

the patriarchal social order that has dominated

Hindu thought and practice from the seventh cen-

tury

B.C.E. to the present. This colonization of

women and their bodies, when combined with

modern medical technology, raises serious ethical

issues for contemporary Hindus. Since the patriar-

chal biasing of Hindu culture has led some Hindus

to value boys more than girls, clinics have ap-

peared in India and in Western diaspora commu-

nities where sonograms and amniocenteses are

performed, and female fetuses aborted, even

though this practice finds no justification in Hindu

texts unless the life of the mother is in danger.

Given the Hindu teaching of reincarnation, to en-

gage in abortion is to commit murder.

In the realm of new reproductive technologies,

the importance of popular Hindu notions of bio-

logical descent entail that artificial insemination

with sperm other than that of the husband is not

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tolerated. But clinics that can help a childless cou-

ple conceive by implanting the husband’s sperm

are welcomed. In vitro fertilization (IVF), however,

presents complicated issues for Hinduism. Fertility

is important, especially the conception and birth of

a son. Thus IVF is attractive to couples having dif-

ficulty conceiving and giving birth. Although mod-

ern India is using IVF enthusiastically, when con-

sidered by Hindu scholars IVF becomes a serious

issue since the destruction of any embryo is con-

sidered murder—thus all fertilized embryos are to

be implanted. Hinduism has religious rituals that

must be performed by a son if one’s afterlife is to

be secured, and the dowry practice makes sons a

source of wealth and daughters a drain on family

fortunes. Thus, the conflict between the desire for

sons (and the possibility of ensuring them through

the new technologies) and the proscription against

abortion places severe moral strains on some fam-

ilies, especially upon the mothers involved.

Ecology

Hindu texts speak of a close relationship between

dharma (righteousness, duty, justice) and the rav-

aging of the earth. When dharma declines, humans

take it out on nature. Modern science and tech-

nology, introduced into India during the British

colonization and fostered by Jawaharlal Nehru’s

plans to industrialize India (undertaken after In-

dian attained independence in 1947), have led to

serious pollution of the rivers, land, and air. This

has been made worse by the country’s population

explosion and the desire of India’s well-off classes

(estimated at 200 to 250 million people) to con-

sume conspicuously. This overpopulation and

overconsumption has led to serious environmental

degradation and an ecological crisis. The challenge

for future science and Hinduism is how to use the

resources of both to foster a sustainable future for

generations to come. A key Hindu text, the Bha-

gavad Gita, offers a vision of the universe as the

body of God towards which Hindus are to behave

with respect. In addition, there are dharma texts in

the Ramayana, Mahabharta, and Puranas that call

for ecological action. The destruction of forests is

condemned and the planting of trees encouraged.

Temples such as the Tirumala Tirupati in South

India, a famous place of pilgrimage, have estab-

lished large nursery forests and, in place of the tra-

ditional food prasada (favor of the deity which

gives one divine grace), have begun to give

saplings to pilgrims to take home and plant. Hindu

gurus have begun to cite previously obscure texts

such as “one tree is equal to ten sons.” When po-

litical officials visit the temple they are given a tree

to plant as a symbol that all trees are worthy of re-

spect as part of God’s body.

The Hindu tradition emphasizes bathing in

rivers as a way to be morally cleansed and to ac-

quire spiritual merit. Thus rivers, especially the

Ganges, are seen as sacred. Rapid industrialization,

however, has led to the release of toxic wastes into

India’s rivers. Overpopulation and the lack of basic

sanitary facilities have resulted in the rivers being

used as latrines despite the injunctions of dharma

texts against such practices. Rivers that are sup-

posed to be a pure part of God’s body, and to be

able to ritually purify people, stand stagnant due to

dams and are polluted with waste—the results of

adharma or unrighteous behavior. The Hindu

view of rivers as nurturing goddesses is under se-

vere challenge due to contemporary environmental

degradation, which is linked by some scholars,

such as Vasudha Narayanan, with the denigration

of women. A comparison can be made between

the plight of rivers and the plight of women, both

being targets of greed and power. Yet it is women,

as in the Chipko (hugging trees) movement, that

are leaders in the protection of forests and the

stopping of dams. Women are also involved in

communicating the tragedy of ecological disasters

using traditional religious art forms of song, dance,

and story. The challenge for science is to join

forces with such ecological movements within Hin-

duism so as to respond to the current crisis.

Genetic engineering

In hopes of responding to India’s overpopulation

and the attendant need for increased food produc-

tion, both government and industry have turned to

genetic engineering for help. Science in India has

responded quickly with research ranging from ge-

netic studies of the human population to various

agricultural and medical applications. Such studies

raise ethical questions for Hinduism. Pharmaceuti-

cal companies use the traditional genetic knowl-

edge of village and tribal peoples, and then engi-

neer and patent products for which the local

people receive no credit and for which they have

to pay. Similarly the genetic altering and patenting

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of seeds takes them out of the hands of ordinary

farmers and places them under corporate control.

For example, Monsanto in partnership with

Mahyco (a seed company in India), has genetically

engineered hybrid cotton seed to produce the

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) enzyme, so that chemi-

cal insecticide sprays will no longer be needed for

pest control (e.g., bollworms). While this may be

beneficial for the preservation of insect diversity,

more problematic has been the activity of Mon-

santo in India in testing the “terminator gene,”

which allows plants to grow but not produce seed

for future crops. This led to protests by farmers’

groups, ecofeminist activity by Vandana Siva, and

charges of biopiracy against Monsanto. In the face

of this protest the Indian government reversed its

position and declared that the terminator gene will

pose a serious threat to Indian agriculture. The

government implemented regulations to cover

every phase of genetic engineering from laboratory

research to field trials and final release.

Such regulations, however, may not cover the

important ethical questions that an application of

Hinduism will raise. For example, given that all of

nature is God’s body, are there moral limits that

genetic engineering must respect? Or do the re-

quirements of dharma allow for the patenting and

commercial (for profit) ownership of forms of life?

And is the crossing of species in genetic engineer-

ing acceptable? Hindu answers to these questions

may well differ from responses of the Western re-

ligions given the strong Hindu view (karma-sam-

sara) that there is no radical separation between

humans and other forms of life, which from a Jaina

perspective extends from humans to animals,

plants, air, water, and molecules of matter. Instead,

a radical continuity is proposed that has ethical im-

plications for much genetic engineering. Hindu

reverencing of plant and animal life offers an im-

portant corrective to tendencies in modern science

and technology to view the results of genetic engi-

neering strictly from the perspective of the benefits

that will accrue to humans. Although medical ther-

apeutic uses of genetic engineering may, at first

glance, seem more defensible, they are open to

similar ethical examination. Although therapeutic

goals seems more clearly good than enhancement

goals (e.g., more intelligence, better memory),

once one begins to make genetic modifications,

one is unsure of the biological and social conse-

quences for the individual and for the collective

ecosystem of which the individual is but a part.

While the government of India still looks to genetic

engineering for help in feeding India’s population

of 950 million and growing, the Hindu peasant

farmer still plants his seed with the prayer, “Let the

seed never be exhausted, let it bring forth seed

next year.” The challenge to science is to help feed

the hungry and heal the sick while still respecting

the requirements of dharma or righteousness in

which the farmer trusts.

See also ECOFEMINISM; ECOLOGY; SPIRITUALITY

Bibliography

Arnold, David. Colonizing the Body: State Medicine and

Epidemic Disease in Nineteenth-Century India. Ox-

ford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Bag, A. K. “Mathematical and Astronomical Heritage of

India.” In Science, Philosophy and Culture, ed. D. P.

Chattopadhyaya and Ravinder Kumar. Delhi, India:

Munshiram Manoharlal, 1996.

Chattopadhyaya, D. P., and Kumar, Ravinder, eds. Science,

Philosophy, and Culture in Historical Perspective.

Delhi, India: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1995.

Grover, Sudarshan. History of the Development of Mathe-

matics in India. Delhi, India: Atma Ram, 1993.

Halbfass, William. India and Europe: An Essay in Under-

standing. Albany: State University of New York

Press, 1988.

Krishna, V. V. “Reflections on the Changing Status of Aca-

demic Science in India.” International Social Science

Journal 53, no. 168 (2001): 231–246.

Narayanan, Vasudha. “‘One Tree is Equal to Ten Sons’:

Some Hindu Responses to the Problems of Ecology,

Population, and Consumption.” In Visions of a New

Earth, ed. Harold Coward and Daniel Maguire. Al-

bany: State University of New York Press, 2000.

Radhakrishnan, S. The Principal Upanisads. London: Allen

and Unwin, 1968.

Rambachan, Anantanand. The Limits of Scripture:

Vivekananda’s Reinterpretation of the Vedas. Hon-

olulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.

Saraswati, Baidyanath, and Torres, Yoloti Gonzales. Cos-

mology of the Sacred World. Varanasi, India: N. K.

Bhose Memorial Foundation, 1999.

Siva, Vandana. Biopiracy. Boston: South End Press, 1997.

HAROLD COWARD

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HINDUISM,HISTORY OF

SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Hinduism is not the name of a particular religion

in the narrow modern sense but it stands for a

cultural tradition that developed over thousands

of years on the South-Asian subcontinent, now

embracing many different religions, such as Vai’-

%avism, 6aivism, 61ktism, and others. Hinduism

comprises, besides rituals and festivities and de-

tailed ethical regulations for individuals and com-

munities, also the arts and sciences. Hinduism

never knew the Western antagonism between phi-

losophy and theology, nor does it have a history of

warfare between science and religion. It was the

highest aim of Hindus to find satyam, truth/reality,

which could be approached in many ways and ap-

pear in many forms.

The well organized, publicly sponsored an-

cient Indian universities such as those at Taxil1 and

N1land1 (considered venerable institutions already

at the time of Gautama the Buddha [late sixth and

early fifth centuries

B.C.E.]), with thousands of

teachers and tens of thousands of students, taught

not only the Veda (revealed scripture) and the

Ved1

gas (auxiliary disciplines), but also the “eight-

een sciences.” The basic curriculum included

7abda-vidy1 (linguistics), 6ilpasth1na-vidy1 (arts

and crafts), cikitsa-vidy1 (medicine), hetu-vidy1

(logic and dialectics), and adhy1tma-vidy1 (spiri-

tuality). Religion, while suffusing all life and activ-

ity, was not isolated from other subjects or given

exclusive attention. The brahmins, the custodians

of the sacred texts, were also the leading intellec-

tuals who studied and taught secular subjects.

Hindu scriptures and thought

The Hindus called their most ancient and most

venerated scripture Veda (from the verbal root vid-,

to know). Vidy1, from the same root, designated

knowledge acquired in any subject (a medical doc-

tor was called a Vaidya), particularly that of the

highest reality/truth taught by the Upanishads. The

term 71stra (from the root 71s-, to order) became

the most general designation for science (in the

sense of French science or Italian scienza): author-

itative, systematic teaching, ranging from Dharma-

71stra, the exposition of traditional law, and Artha-

71stra, the teaching of statecraft and administration,

to 6ilpa-71stra, instruction in art and architecture,

and K&’i-71stra, the theory and practice of agricul-

ture. A learned person carried the title of 61str3, re-

spected by the community regardless of the subject

of his learning. Graduation was a “third birth”:

members of the three higher castes became dvijati

(twiceborn) through upanayana (initiation), the

71str3 degree made them trijati.

Traditional Indian thought is characterized by a

holistic vision. Instead of breaking experience and

reality up into isolated fragments, the Indian

thinkers looked at the whole and reconciled ten-

sions and seeming contradictions within overarch-

ing categories. Thus the poets of the )gveda speak

of vi7va-jyoti, cosmic light as the principle and

source of everything, and of &ta, the universal cos-

mic order connecting and directing all particular

phenomena and events. The Upanishads organize

the world by relating everything to the pañca-

bh5tas (five elements: earth, water, light, wind,

ether) and identify in Brahman an all-embracing

reality-principle. The name of the major deity of

later Hinduism is Vi’%u, the “all-pervading,” whose

body is the universe. Nature ( prak&ti) was never

seen as mere object, but always as productive

agent. The Hindu view of life found expression in

the four puru’1rthas: a person was to acquire

wealth (artha), enjoy life (k1ma), practice morality

and religion (dharma), and seek final emancipa-

tion (mok’a) in appropriate balance. Religion was

a natural part of the universally accepted order of

things. Texts dealing with medicine contain reli-

gious regulations, and theological treatises also fre-

quently refer to worldly matters. The study of

Ny1ya (logic and epistemology) was undertaken to

achieve mok’a (spiritual emancipation). The no-

tion of atman was applied to humans, animals,

and plants. Many Indian scientists show an interest

in religious issues, and Hindu spiritual leaders fre-

quently appeal to science to illustrate their instruc-

tions. They would never relegate science to pure

reason and religion to pure faith and treat them as

natural enemies, as is often done in the West.

According to the Vedas, only one-fourth of re-

ality is accessible to the senses, which also include

manas, instrumental reason. Supersensual reality

revealed itself to the &’is, the composers of the

Vedic s5ktas. The Upanishads know an ascending

correlation of subject/consciousness and object/re-

ality: Only the lowest of four stages (j1garita) con-

cerns sense perception of material objects. The

three higher levels of reality are intuited through

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meditative introspection, which culminates in the

insight that 1tman is Brahman: Spirit-self alone is

supreme reality.

The central ritual of Vedic culture was the

yajña (sacrifice of material objects according to

fixed rules). Brahmin students had to train for

many years to learn to perform yajña, which in-

volved, besides the priest and the patron, the

devas (the deities of earth, space, and heaven who

were invited to attend). It was offered on altars

built with specifically produced bricks arranged in

a prescribed geometric pattern, performed at as-

tronomically fixed times. The altar was conceived

as symbol of the human body as well as of the uni-

verse: One text relates the 360 bricks of an altar to

the 360 days of the year and the 360 bones in the

human body. The building of altars of different

configurations, and more so their change in shape

and volume, as required in certain rituals, involved

a sophisticated geometry. 6ulva-s5tras (part of

Kalpa-s5tras, ritual texts) provided the rules for

constructing a variety of shapes of altars and their

permutations. They exhibit an algebraic geometry

older and more advanced than early Egyptian,

Babylonian, or Greek geometry. The exact timing

of the performance of the sacrifices was accom-

plished by people conversant with the movement

of the stars. Jyoti’a, one of the six early Ved1

gas

(auxiliary sciences of the Veda), reveals a good

deal of astronomical knowledge.

Study was mandatory for brahmins. They had

to devote the first part of their lives up to age

twenty-four to systematic training under the super-

vision of a guru. Later they had to practice

sv1dhy1ya (study on their own.) While the study

of the Vedas and the Ved1

gas was reserved for

brahmins, the study of the Upavedas was open to

all higher castes. These comprise Vyur-veda (“life-

science,” medicine), Dhanur-veda (“bow-science,”

martial arts), Gandharva-veda (“art-science,” music

and dancing), and St1pathya-veda (“building sci-

ence,” architecture, sculpture, and painting). The

universities, where these subjects were taught,

attracted a large body of students from all over

Asia. Reports from fourth and sixth century Chi-

nese guest-students praise the physical amenities

as well as the high standard of learning. In the

eleventh century, after the Muslim invaders had al-

ready destroyed much of India’s cultural infra-

structure, the Muslim scholar-diplomat Al-Biruni

spent a decade in India researching and docu-

menting many aspects of traditional Indian science

in his Al-Hind.

The practical sciences of Hindu India

Research in the history of Indian science is still in

an early stage and much work remains to be done.

New material is regularly published in the well es-

tablished Indian Journal for the History of Science,

Vedic Science, and other periodicals. In the follow-

ing, elementary information is offered on some

specific areas only. The dates for early Indian liter-

ature are still a matter of controversy; expert opin-

ions often differ by thousands of years.

Astronomy. Astronomical knowledge of a fairly

high order was required for the performance of

Vedic yajñas. According to Subhash Kak, the struc-

tures both of the )gveda text and the Vedic altars

contain an “astronomical code,” embodying pre-

cise and fairly accurate information about distances

and revolutions of planets and more general astro-

nomical data. The )gveda has some astronomical

markers that have been used for dating these texts

to the fourth millenium

B.C.E. From the Jyoti’a

Ved1

ga (third century

B.C.E.) onwards there is a

rich Indian astronomical literature. Indians oper-

ated with various cycles of lunar and solar years

and calculated cosmic cycles of 10,800 and 432,000

years. Their findings and theories are embodied in

numerous siddh1ntas, of which the most famous is

the S5rya-siddh1nta (fourth century

C.E.). Indian

astronomers calculated the duration of one kalpa

(a cycle of the universe during which all the heav-

enly bodies return to their original positions) to be

4,320,000,000 years. Several Pur1%as contain cos-

mogonic and cosmological sections utilizing as-

tronomy, describing periodic creations and de-

structions of the universe, and also suggesting the

existence of parallel universes. While the main

purpose of the Pur1%as is to recommend a specific

path of salvation, this is always set into a cosmic

context. Many popular stotras (hymns, prayers) re-

cited at religious gatherings allude to cosmic

events as well. One of the most interesting figures

among Indian astronomers is Var1hamihira (fifth to

sixth century

C.E.), the author of the celebrated

Pañcasiddh1ntika amd of the B&hat-Sa$hit1,

which besides astronomical information teaches

astrology and all kinds of occult arts.

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Mathematics. Indian mathematics developed

out of the requirements for the Vedic yajña. The

Yajurveda knows terms for numbers up to 10

(by

comparison the highest number named by the

Greeks was 10

). Later on the Indians coined terms

for numbers up to 10

and 10

. Algebra, in spite

of its Arabic name, is an Indian invention, and so

are the zero and the decimal system, including the

“Arabic” numerals. The names of some great In-

dian mathematicians and some particulars of their

accomplishments are known. Thus Vryabha(a I

(fifth century

C.E.), a link in a long chain of un-

known earlier master mathematicians, knew the

rules for extracting square and cubic roots. He de-

termined the value of π to four decimals and de-

veloped an alphabetical system for expressing

numbers on the decimal place value model. His

Vryabha(3ya was translated into Latin (from an

Arabic translation) by a thirteenth century Italian

mathematician. Brahmagupta (seventh century

C.E.) formulated a thousand years before the great

Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) a

theorem based on indeterminate equations.

Bh1skara II (twelfth century) is the author of the

Siddh1nta-7iroma%3, a widely used text on algebra

and geometry. Hindus have continued to show

great aptitude for mathematics. Ramanujan

(1887–1920), practically untutored, developed the

most astounding mathematical theorems.

Medicine. The Atharva-veda, considered by

some to be the oldest among the four Vedas, con-

tains invocations relating to bodily and mental dis-

eases. Its Upa-veda, the Vyur-veda (life-science)

was cultivated systematically from early on. It was

mainly oriented towards preventing diseases and

healing through herbal remedies, but it also later

developed other medical specialties. Good health

was not only considered generally desirable, but

also priced as a precondition for reaching spiritual

fulfillment. Medicine as a charity was widely rec-

ommended and supported by the rulers. Two

Indian medical handbooks, the result of

centuries of development, became famous in the

ancient world far beyond India: the Caraka-

sa$hit1 and the Su7ruta-sa$hit1. They were later

translated and utilized by the invading Muslims.

Caraka deals mainly with general medicine and

identifies hundreds of medical conditions for

which mainly plant pharmaca are prescribed.

Su7ruta focuses on surgery, which by that time

was already highly developed, with an array of

specific surgical instruments. Indian surgeons were

famous in the ancient world; their skills were es-

pecially appreciated by the wounded in the fre-

quent wars. Hindus also called upon the divine

physician of the gods Dhanvantari, “the one who

removes arrows.” The theory of Vyurveda was

based on the tri-do’a theory, which is older than

the similar Greek three-humours teaching, used for

diagnosis as well as in the treatment of diseases.

While the healthy body has a perfect balance of

vata, pitta, and kapha, disease is a disturbance of

that harmony, to be cured by re-establishing the

right proportion.

Vyur-veda was also applied to animals and

plants. There is an ancient V&k’1yurveda, a hand-

book for professional gardeners, and a G1v1yur-

veda for veterinarians of cattle. Other texts deal

with veterinary medicine relating to horses and

elephants. Ancient India also had hospitals as well

as animal clinics, and go7al1s, places in which eld-

erly cattle are tended, are still popular in some

parts of India. Vyurveda was the source of much

of ancient Greek and Roman, as well as mediaeval

Arabic, medical knowledge. The scientific value of

Vyurvedic pharmacology is being recognized by

major Western pharmaceutical companies who

apply for world-wide patents on medicinal plants

discovered and described by the ancient Indian

Vaidyas.

Architecture. The ancient Indus civilization ex-

hibits a high degree of architectural achievement.

The well-laid out cities, the carefully built brick

houses, the systems of drainage, and the large

water tanks reveal the work of professional town-

planners and builders. This tradition was contin-

ued and enhanced in later centuries, especially in

connection with the building of temples to pro-

vide abodes for the deity. No village or town was

deemed fit for human habitation if it did not pos-

sess a temple. Careful selection and preparation of

the ground preceded the building activity proper.

The edifice had to be constructed according to an

elaborate set of rules that took into account not

only structural engineering and quality of materi-

als, but also circumstances of caste and religious

affiliation. The Upaveda of Sth1patya-vidy1 was

expanded into a professional V1stu-71stra and

6ilpa-71stra. Elaborate handbooks like the

M1nas1ra and the Mayamata provide detailed

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artistic and religious canons for the building of

temples and the making of images. Temples and

images of deities were consecrated only if they

conformed to the standards established. The tem-

ple (ma%#ira) was a visible symbol of the uni-

verse, showing the entire range of entities from the

highest to the lowest. The image (m5rti) was

the very body of God, who descended into it for

the purpose of receiving worship. Thousands

of large and beautiful temples dot the landscape

of India, and millions of images adorn ma%#iras

and homes.

Linguistics. While India’s medical doctors,

architects, metallurgists, mathematicians, as-

tronomers, and others were appreciated for their

knowledge and skills in their fields, the pride

of place in the world of brahminic knowledge

always belonged to the study of the Word (v1k),

which from early on was seen as embued with di-

vine power. The brahmins who preserved and in-

vestigated the Word occupied the highest social

rank. Sanskrit, the refined language of the Veda

and of higher learning, was considered a gift of

the gods.

The Sanskrit alphabet, in contrast to the chaotic

alphabets used in Western languages, is based on a

scientific system: All vowels are arranged in an or-

derly fashion according to acoustic principles. The

consonants are organized in five classes (guttural,

palatal, cerebral, dental, labial) and, in each of

these, five varieties were distinguished (hard, hard-

aspirate, soft, soft-aspirate, nasal). This system

shows great ingenuity and a keen sense of obser-

vation and proved conducive to formulating gen-

eral grammatical and phonetical laws. It was in

place already by one thousand

B.C.E. By six hun-

dred

B.C.E., P1ni%i, a linguistic genius of the first

order, systematised Sanskrit in his A’(1dhy1y3 by

deriving all verbs and nouns from about eight hun-

dred roots and formulating four thousand intercon-

nected grammatical rules—an achievement unpar-

alleled in any other language until the twenty-first

century. P1ni%i was followed by a long line of

commentators, who continued his work: The best

known is Patañjali, the author of the Mah1-bh1’ya.

Traditional Indian scholarship was based on mem-

orizing enormous amounts of literature and trans-

mitting it orally over thousands of years. In the

process Indians developed very sophisticated

mnemotechnical devices.

Ancient Indian theoretical sciences

Among the ’a#-dar7anas, the traditional “six or-

thodox philosophical systems” of Hinduism,

S1!khya stands out as possibly the oldest and cer-

tainly the most interesting in the religion and sci-

ence context. It offers a general theory of evolution

based on the interactive polarity of nature and mat-

ter (prak&ti), and spirit and soul (puru’a). All real-

ity is subsumed under five times five principles

(tattvas), originating from one substratum (prad-

h1na), covering all possible physical, biological,

and psychological categories. S1!khya shows the

interconnections between the various components

of our world in order to unravel the evolutionary

process (which is seen as the cause of all unhap-

piness and misery) and to return to the changeless

bliss of spirit-existence. The twenty-five categories

to which S1mkhya reduces the manifold world be-

came widely accepted in Hindu thought. The Yoga

system of Patañjali is wholly based on it. The

Pur1%as also accept it as their philosophical basis,

with one amendment: Prak&ti and puru’a are over-

arched by 37vara, a personal creator-maintainer-

savior God.

Vai7e’ika, another one of the six orthodox

dar7anas, offers a theory of atomism more ancient

than that of the Greek philosopher Democritus,

and a detailed analysis of vi7e’as, qualities and dif-

ferences, after which the system is named. The

Vai7e’ika-s5tra describes the formation of physical

bodies from atoms (a%u) through dyads (dvy1%-

uka) and triads (try1%uka) in a strict cause-effect

series. The positioning of the atoms determines the

qualities of a body. Vai7e’ika also developed the

notion of impetus, a concept that appeared in

Western science only in the fourteenth century. In

Vai7e’ika the relation of science to religion is less

clear than in the case of S1!khya. However, the

other dar7ana with which it has been paired,

Ny1ya, concerned with epistemology and logic,

declares that such analysis is necessary for obtain-

ing spiritual liberation.

Spiritual sciences

Among the prescribed subjects of the ancient In-

dian university curriculum was adhy1tma-vidy1,

the science relating to spirit. As the most important

level of reality, Brahman was the subject of the

highest science, employing personal experience

(anubh1va), a coherent epistemology (yukti), and

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the exegesis of revealed utterances (7ruti or

7abda). The Upanishads mention thirty-two vidy1s,

paths leading to the goal of all science: “One

who knows Brahman becomes Brahman.” The

ideas of the Upanishads were further developed

into the systematics of Ved1nta philosophy

laid down mainly in commentaries (bh1syas) on

the Brahma-s5tras ascribed to B1dar1ya%a

(second century

B.C

.E.). Beginning with 6a

kara

(eighth century

C.E.), through R1m1nuja (eleventh

century) to Madhva (thirteenth century), the great-

est minds of India have endeavored to cultivate

science that concerns itself with the eternal reality

of the spirit. Yoga too, in the form in which it was

systematized by Patañjali (R1ja-yoga) is proceed-

ing scientifically by analyzing the world of experi-

ence in terms suitable to spiritual enlightenment

and describing experiential steps to be taken to

find enlightenment.

India’s spiritual fame in the West is of long

standing. During the fourth century

B.C.E., Alexan-

der the Great, intrigued by the proverbial wisdom

of the brahmins, sought out the company of what

the Greeks called gymnosophists on his Indian ex-

pedition (eventually replacing his mentor Aristotle

by Kálanos, an Indian sage). Six centuries later, the

philosopher Plotinus joined the expedition of Em-

peror Gordian in order to meet the famed Indian

sages. No less a modern Western scientist than

Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961),

who won the Nobel prize for physics in 1933, has

paid tribute to that “other” science: “The subject of

every science is always the spirit and there is only

that much true science in every endeavour as it

contains spirit” (p. 495).

India and scientific technological progress

Glazed pottery appeared in Mohenjo Daro fifteen

hundred years earlier than in Greece. Indian steel

was so famous three-thousand years ago that the

ancient Persians were eager to obtain swords from

India. Indian silk and cotton fabrics were among

the most prized imports of ancient Rome. The fa-

mous Iron Pillar in Delhi, almost eight meters high

and weighing more than six tons, has weathered

more than fifteen hundred monsoons without

showing a trace of rust. Amazing engineering feats

were displayed in the construction of numerous

temples of huge dimensions. The capstone of the

B&had37vara temple of Tanjavur, weighing eighty

tons, was moved up to a height of sixty-five meters

in the eleventh century. The skills of ancient Indian

craftsmen, who created innumerable tools and

works of art from ivory, wood, metal, and stone,

show a broad based technical culture that had few

equals in its time.

Many of the intellectual or practical achieve-

ments later ascribed to the Babylonians, the

Greeks, or the Arabs had originated in India. India

was the envy and the marvel of the ancient world

before it fell victim to Muslim invaders, who mas-

sively disrupted its cultural, scientific, and religious

traditions. The British who succeeded them en-

countered a weak, backward, fragmented, and de-

moralized India. Together with machine-made fab-

ric, British India imported Western education and

with it a hitherto unknown tension between cul-

ture and religion. Modern science and technology

were touted as an accomplishment of Christian

Europe and seen as the most effective instruments

in overcoming superstitious Hinduism. Ram

Mohan Roy, an early Hindu reformer, believed in

the possibility of harmonizing Hinduism with

modern Western science and the teachings of

Christ. He founded English-language schools in

which modern Western scientific knowledge was

taught. Swami Dayanand Saraswati asserted that

the ancient Hindus had known the principles of

Western science long ago, had anticipated some of

the technological marvels like steam-engines and

airplanes, and did not need a new religion. He

founded a traditional Gurukula with Sanskrit

medium and only traditional Indian subjects. By

the late twenty-first century, there are thousands

of Indian scientists with a Hindu background.

Most do not see a conflict between their religion

and their science, but some do notice a difference

in orientation. Some have been led to astounding

discoveries through the application of ancient

Hindu insights to new fields of enquiry. Thus the

biologist Jagdish Chandra Bose (1860–1937) used

the Upanishadic idea of the universal 1tman to

conduct groundbreaking research in plant physi-

ology. The traditional Hindu holistic and personal-

istic orientation could serve as a necessary correc-

tive to mainstream Western science with its

Cartesian legacy of an impersonal mechanistic

worldview and a purely pragmatic, analytic ap-

proach to nature.

See also ASTRONOMY; MEDICINE; SPIRITUALITY

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HISTORICAL CRITICISM

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Bibliography

Al Biruni. Al Biruni’s India, trans. Edward C. Sachau. New

Delhi, India: S. Chand, 1964.

Bose, D. M; Sen, S. N.; and Subbarayappa, B.V., eds. A

Concise History of Science in India (1971). New

Delhi, India: Indian National Science Academy, 1984.

Gosling, David. L. Science and Religion in India. Madras,

India: CSL, 1976.

Heimann, Betty. Facets of Indian Thought. London:

George Allen and Unwin, 1964.

Iyengar, T. Renga Rajan. Hinduism and Scientific Quest.

Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass, 1997.

Jaggi, O. P. History of Science, Technology, and Medicine

in India, 15 vols. Delhi, India: Atma Ram, 1973–1986.

Kak, Subhash. The Astronomical Code of the Rgveda. New

Delhi, India: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2000.

Klostermaier, Klaus K. Hinduism: A Short History. Oxford:

Oneworld, 2000.

Kramrisch, Stella. The Hindu Temple (1946), 2 vols. Delhi,

India: Motilal Banarsidass, 1976.

Ravindra, Ravi, ed. Science and Spirit. New York: Paragon

House, 1991.

Schrödinger, Erwin. My View of the World. London: Cam-

bridge University Press, 1964.

Schrödinger, Erwin. “Der Geist der Naturwissenschaft.” Er-

anos-Jahrbuch 14. Zurich: Rhein-Verlag, 1947.

Seal, Brajendranath. The Positive Sciences of the Ancient

Hindus (1915). Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass, 1958.

Seidenberg, Abraham. “The Geometry of the Vedic Rituals.”

In Agni: The Vedic Ritual of the Fire Altar, ed. Frits

Staal. Berkeley, Calif.: Asian Humanities Press, 1983.

Singhal, Damodar P. “Naturalism and Science in Ancient

India.” In India and World Civilization, 2 vols. East

Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1969.

Staal, Frits. “The Sanskrit of Science.” Journal of Indian

Philosophy 23 (1995): 73–127.

Subbarayappa, B. V. “India’s Contribution to the History

of Science.” Dilip 1, no. 2 (1974): 15–33.

KLAUS K . KLOSTERMAIER

HISTORICAL CRITICISM

It would be difficult to argue that there was exten-

sive interrelation between the rise of historical crit-

icism and the emergence of modern science. True,

both of these developments raised the most seri-

ous questions about the viability of traditional the-

ological notions. In addition, the growing confi-

dence in scientific explanations for events in

nature, especially from the Enlightenment on,

clearly eroded trust in traditional biblical authority.

Yet the languages and the trajectories of criticism

and science were mainly independent and parallel,

as if taking place on the opposite sides of a high

fence. And they raised different kinds of problems

for the theological enterprise.

Method

Historical criticism of the Bible, sometimes referred

to as higher criticism in contrast to the textual crit-

icism that sought to determine the most accurate

reading (or original texts) of the received biblical

documents, sought to apply to the scriptures the

same sort of analysis commonly used for other (es-

pecially ancient) literary documents—though it

should be said that biblical scholars contributed

perhaps more than any others to the origin and re-

finement of this kind of literary analysis. Prescind-

ing from the traditional notions about authorship

and “inspiration,” historical criticism sought to an-

swer anew questions about the origin and devel-

opment of the scriptural literature, both by internal

analysis and by relating the biblical texts to other

records of ancient times. Fresh attention was given

to such questions as: What is the relation of the bib-

lical books to each other? How and why were they

written? By whom? When? What did the writers in-

tend to say? Were there historical causes that might

account for the events recorded in the scriptures?

While such methods had been employed even

in ancient times by some opponents of the church

and by a small minority of Christian scholars, bib-

lical studies in the church had continued to be

largely insulated from literary criticism or defensive

in reaction to it. Historical criticism began to be

most extensively employed after the Renaissance

and Reformation. The multiple levels of medieval

interpretation, especially the allegorical or spiritual

meanings, which through the Middle Ages had

been favorite means of dealing with apparent dif-

ficulties and contradictions in the texts, were

largely abandoned in favor of the “plain” or literal

sense. In connection with their insistence on the

authority of scripture rather than tradition, the

Reformers, especially Martin Luther and William

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