Our understanding of the contributions to science by ancient Indians has improved considerably during last few decades. For example, Seidenberg discovered that the "Pythagoras" theorem was known to ancient Indians centuries before the Greeks, and is described in The Shatapatha Brahmana. Similarly the contribution of ancient Indians to mathematics, music, grammar, computing science, astronomy and cosmology are being recognized.

The use of binary numbers forms the basis for the operation of digital computers. B. van Nooten of the University of California, Berkeley, describes his discovery of binary numbers in Pingala's "Chandahshastra" ;, an ancient Indian text on music. In order to classify the meters, Pingala constructs a "Prastara" or a matrix of binary numbers. Pingala also describes how to find the binary equivalent of a decimal number.

The hashing technique is used in computer science to retrieve a record from a table. scholars discussed the similarity of "The Katapayadi Scheme" to modern hashing techniques. Indians devised ways to represent numbers in the form of text. Each letter was assigned a specific numerical value. A verse from "Sadratnamala" in fact represents the value of pi up to sixteen decimal places! A vast body of scientific information is hidden in ancient Hindu scriptures and Sanskrit texts. Some scholars have explained the astonishing discovery of speed of light in a medieval text by Sayana. Sayana comments on a verse in Rigveda that Sun traverses 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha. Yojana is an ancient Indian unit of length and nimesa is the unit of time. Upon conversion in modern units, this yields the value of 186,000 miles per second. Now it is well known that this is the velocity of light. Why would Sayana call this the velocity of Sun? It turns out that Sayana was following the ancient Indian tradition of codifying the knowledge. In this code Sun represents light.

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