Science, from Aryabhata to Chandrayaan

AI-drafted · awaiting admin review

India's scientific tradition is ancient and very much alive, from the decimal system and surgery to moon landings.

The decimal place-value system with zero, used by the whole world today, developed in India. Brahmagupta (628 CE) gave rules for calculating with zero.
Aryabhata (499 CE) explained the daily rotation of the Earth and gave π as about 3.1416.
The Sushruta Samhita describes surgical procedures and instruments, including reconstructive surgery of the nose. The Charaka Samhita is a foundational text of Ayurveda.
The Iron Pillar at the Qutb complex in Delhi, from the Gupta period, has resisted rust for over 1,500 years.
Lothal in Gujarat had one of the world's earliest known dockyards. The Jantar Mantar observatories of Sawai Jai Singh II measured time and the sky with stone instruments.

C. V. Raman won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 for the Raman effect. National Science Day (28 February) marks its discovery.
ISRO was founded in 1969. India launched its first satellite, Aryabhata, in 1975. Rakesh Sharma flew to space in 1984.
The Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) reached Mars on 24 September 2014. India was the first country to do so on its first attempt.
In 2017, PSLV-C37 placed 104 satellites in orbit in a single launch.
Chandrayaan-3 made India the first country to land near the Moon's south pole, on 23 August 2023, now National Space Day.
Aditya-L1, India's first solar observatory, reached its orbit around the L1 point in January 2024.
In 2025, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the first Indian to visit the International Space Station. The Gaganyaan programme will send Indian astronauts to space on an Indian rocket.

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