Did you know that atomic theory was actually developed 2,500 years ago by an Indian sage ?
Well it's true! You might be well known about John Dalton(1766-1844), an English chemist and physicist, today who gets all the credit for the development of the atomic theory. But the reality unfolds in a different style as the atomic theory was formulated way back ago by an Indian sage and philosopher, named Acharya Kanad.
Acharya Kanad who's real name is Kashyap was born in 600 BC in Prabhas kshetra in Gujarat, India.
The journey of his discovery of atom begins when Kanad was on a pilgrimage to Prayag. He saw thousands of pilgrims scattering the flowers and grains of rice on the streets around the temple, which was an offering to the temple. Mesmerized by all the small grains and flowers, Kashyap went on to collect the grains of rice. A crowd of people gathered around him and one of them asked why he was collecting the grains that even a beggar ignores. He replied with confidence,
Well I think we give less credits to our ancestor on their contribution to the modern science. We can't just ignore what they have achieved by just saying that there was no rational experiment done to prove the statement. We should rather be fascinated by their acheivement on that time period when there was no such thing as simple machines to simplify their work.
Later on Acharya Kanad founded the Vaisheshika school of philosophy where he taught his ideas about the atom and the nature of the universe. He wrote a book on his research “Vaisheshik Darshan” and became known as “The Father of Atomic theory.”
Beyond Science - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbVjSQWHySo
Well it's true! You might be well known about John Dalton(1766-1844), an English chemist and physicist, today who gets all the credit for the development of the atomic theory. But the reality unfolds in a different style as the atomic theory was formulated way back ago by an Indian sage and philosopher, named Acharya Kanad.
The journey of his discovery of atom begins when Kanad was on a pilgrimage to Prayag. He saw thousands of pilgrims scattering the flowers and grains of rice on the streets around the temple, which was an offering to the temple. Mesmerized by all the small grains and flowers, Kashyap went on to collect the grains of rice. A crowd of people gathered around him and one of them asked why he was collecting the grains that even a beggar ignores. He replied with confidence,
the individual grains themselves may seem worthless, but a collection of some hundred grains makes up a person's meal, the collection of many meals would feed an entire family and ultimately the entire mankind was made of many families, thus even a single grain of rice was an important as all the valuable riches in the world.Since then people started calling him Kanad, as 'Kan' in Sanskrit means "the smallest particle". He further went deep into his fascination with conceptualizing the ideas of 'Kan'. He began writing down his ideas and sharing them with people. So, people started calling him Acharya Kanad where 'Acharya' means "the teacher". Hence he is known as the teacher of the smallest particle.
Now let's know Acharya Kanad's conception of atom
Kanad was sauntering with food in his hand, dividing it into smaller pieces until the food couldn't be further broken down into any smaller pieces. From this moment, Kanad started to conceptualize the idea that the particle that could not be divided into further pieces. He named the indivisible particle parmanu, anu which we now know by "atom". He proposed that the atom could not be sensed through any human organs or viewed by the naked eye. He also talked about how the binary molecules are formed which produces different types of substances. Kanad further explained that the combination of atoms could cause various chemical changes in presence of factors such as heat, water.
Well I think we give less credits to our ancestor on their contribution to the modern science. We can't just ignore what they have achieved by just saying that there was no rational experiment done to prove the statement. We should rather be fascinated by their acheivement on that time period when there was no such thing as simple machines to simplify their work.
Later on Acharya Kanad founded the Vaisheshika school of philosophy where he taught his ideas about the atom and the nature of the universe. He wrote a book on his research “Vaisheshik Darshan” and became known as “The Father of Atomic theory.”
References
Ancient-Origins - http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-technology/indian-sage-who-developed-atomic-theory-2600-years-ago-001399Beyond Science - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbVjSQWHySo
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