Pointers to Science in Rig Veda With Age and Origin

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The Vedas are the earliest literature of human society and contains an ocean of knowledge. Man has created Gods and Goddesses. Man has created science. Man has created philosophy. Man has created the arts and commerce. He has created all of this for himself and by himself, several millenniums back. While doing so, he discovered several natural phenomena which our science discovered only a few hundred years back.

Puluguri Krishna Rao is a writer living in Vadodara, Gujarat. He completed his schooling in Brahmapur, Odisha and his graduation in Sambalpur, Odisha.

Following his retirement as a petroleum chemist, Krishna Rao rediscovered his childhood interest in the Vedas. Inspired, he began writing about the Vedas and how they relate to science and the world at present.

Krishna Rao has also authored three books and published several scholarly journals. His paper, Climate Change and Impact On Water Resources, received recognition from the Government of India.

When I was a child and was probably in class VI, I asked my Telugu and Sanskrit teachers “Sir, what are Vedas and what do they contain” They told that Vedas are very old and contain everything. But they did not tell me what they contain”? Later when I was in college. I asked the same question many of my friends, a few professors. Everybody said Vedas contain all knowledge. They said Vedas are a heap of knowledge but did not give even a single example.

After my graduation, I took up a job in Rourkela Steel Plant and was busy with work. But the question remained in my mind.

As the time passed, I asked some of my friends and colleagues, the same question. Some said that Atharva Veda contains chemistry and medicine. Some said Vedas contain science and technology. But none told exactly what do they contain.

During my visit to Chennai in 1996, I found ‘Hymns of Rigveda’ by Ralph Griffith in book store and purchased a copy. I also purchased Atharva Veda authored by Devi Chand and published by Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers New Delhi, India.

When I visited my brother in Visakhapatnam (AP), I found Vedas in Telugu in a book store, authored by Dr Dasarathi Rangacharya, published by Sri Rama Publishers and Enesco Arsha Bharati, Hyderabad. I immediately bought the whole set without further thought. Later my brother procured a Sanskrit version of Vedas authored by Marri Krishna Reddy published by Vaidika Sahitya Prachrana Samiti, Hyderabad, India.

On 25-9-2015, I read a news item in Times of India, that Hon Defense Minister Sri Manoharlal Parikkar advised the DRDO scientists to learn from the Rishis of Rigveda who selflessly worked for the society without any jealousy, and asked the scientists to delivered efficient weapons to the Armed forces. A thought occurred to me “why not write what Rigvedic Rishis said on science and what was the stage of science in that times.”The idea took the shape of this small work. However, this small work also contains some verses on the age, origin of Vedas and (a few verses) society during Vedic times.

I surfed the internet and downloaded some path breaking items which were authored by reputed intellectuals, to my joy, but I could not get what I am looking for. They were rather generic and praises of Vedas. My desire is somewhat different. I wanted something of our present scientific knowledge on which the Rigvedic rishi as have composed the verses of Rigveda or something in Rigveda that is yet to be transformed into useful purpose in the present time. For example, Darbha (a kind of grass) was given importance (RV 1:13:5) Even today, it occupies importance in all Hindu rituals. Why? I reflected and some answers came to my mind. Darbha contains radio active Carbon 13 (C13). It absorbs cosmic rays.