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Summary

This video explores the ancient Indian system of measurement for time, length, and weight, highlighting their significance in trade, science, and astronomy. It delves into the Srimad-Bhagavatam, which provides a detailed timeline from nanoseconds to billions of human years. The concept of 'paramanu' is introduced as the smallest unit of measurement for time, length, and weight, with calculations based on scriptural references. The video also discusses the practical applications of these measurements in ancient texts like Arthashastra and Ayurveda, and the use of balances from the Harappan period. It concludes by setting the stage for the next video, which will reveal the ancient Indian understanding of the binary system.

Takeaways

• 📏 Ancient Indians had a robust system for representing large numbers and unique numerical expressions.
• 📐 Units of measurement for time, length, and weight were essential for trade, science, and discoveries in ancient India.
• ⏳ The Srimad-Bhagavata Mahapurana describes a detailed time measurement system, from 10^-5 seconds to 432 billion human years.
• 🔬 The term 'paramanu' in ancient texts represents the smallest unit of measurement for time, length, and weight, but it is not directly equivalent to modern subatomic particles.
• 💡 Light passing through a paramanu determines the smallest unit of time, approximately 1.31 x 10^-5 seconds.
• 📏 Ancient Indian length measurements start from the paramanu, with progressive units increasing by powers of seven, leading up to larger measures like the yojana, equivalent to 14.484 kilometers.
• ⏱️ The Bhagavata Purana describes a unique experiment to define the unit 'nadika' by using a copper vessel with a small hole made by a specific golden needle.
• 🕰️ The ancient Indian system linked smaller time units up to large scales, like a kalpa, with 1 kalpa equating to thousands of celestial years.
• ⚖️ Historical evidence, such as from the Harappan period and Arthashastra, shows the use of calibrated balances and systematic weight measurements.
• 🧪 Ayurveda required precise weight measurements for accurate ingredient mixing, highlighting the importance of a well-defined weight system in ancient Indian practices.

Q & A

What are the three main types of units of measurement discussed in the video?

The three main types of units of measurement discussed are time, length, and weight. These were essential for trade, science, and other practical purposes in ancient India.

What is a 'paramanu' and how is it defined in the context of time, length, and weight?

A 'paramanu' refers to the smallest measure in the Indian system. It represents the smallest unit of time, length, and weight. For time, it is the time taken by light to pass through a paramanu, calculated as 1.31 x 10^-5 seconds. For length, it is 2.88 x 10^-7 millimeters, and for weight, it is 5.79 x 10^-5 grams.

How were larger units of length derived from the paramanu?

Larger units of length were derived by multiplying paramanus. For example, seven paramanus made a 'Renu,' seven renus made a 'Truti,' and so on, using powers of seven to move from one unit to the next.

What is the length of one 'yojana' in modern terms?

One yojana is equivalent to 14.484 kilometers, as calculated from ancient Indian measurements.

How did the Srimad Bhagavatam Mahapurana describe the concept of time?

The Srimad Bhagavatam Mahapurana provided a detailed description of time, spanning from 10^-5 seconds (paramanu) to 432 billion human years. This is elaborately described in Chapter 11 of Book 3.

What is a 'nadika' and how was it measured?

A 'nadika' was a unit of time measured using a copper vessel with a hole pierced by a golden needle of specific weight and length. Water would fill the vessel until it submerged, and the elapsed time was recorded as one nadika.

How was the diameter of the hole in the copper vessel calculated for the nadika experiment?

The diameter of the hole was calculated using the weight, length, and specific gravity of the golden needle used to pierce the hole. This allowed for precise measurements in the nadika experiment.

What were some historical examples of weight and balance systems in ancient India?

Balances were in use as early as the Harappan period. The Arthashastra provides detailed descriptions of weight systems, balances, and calibration methods, including 16 types of balances for different materials.

What significance did Ayurveda have in the development of weight measurements?

In Ayurveda, precise measurements of weights were essential for mixing the correct quantities of ingredients, often involving metallic substances. Thus, a well-defined weight system was crucial for the practice.

How did the ancient Indian system calculate celestial and human lifespans?

The system calculated celestial lifespans by equating 360 human years to one celestial year. It stated that 12,000 celestial years make a Mahayuga (4.32 million years), and 1,000 Mahayugas make a Kalpa (one day of Brahma).

Outlines

00:00

📏 Units of Measurement in Ancient India

The paragraph discusses the importance of units of measurement in ancient India for trade, science, and scientific discoveries. It highlights how the Indian number system was robust and how units for time, length, and weight were defined. The scriptural references to these units are found in 'Srimad-Bhagavatam Mahapurana', which includes descriptions of time units from 10^-5 seconds to 432 billion human years. The concept of 'paramanu' is introduced as the smallest measure of time, length, and weight, with calculations based on scriptural references. A table is mentioned, which shows the progression of units of length, starting from paramanu to larger units like 'yava'.

05:00

🕰️ Time Measurement and Experiments in Ancient India

This paragraph delves into the ancient Indian methods of time measurement, referencing 'Bhagavata Mahapurana' for an interesting experiment involving a copper vessel and a golden needle. It describes how to measure time by observing the flow of water through a hole made by the needle. The paragraph also mentions the conversion of these ancient measurements to modern units, such as meters and seconds. The experiment involves calculating the diameter of a hole based on the weight, length, and specific gravity of gold.

10:02

📚 Historical Facts and Weight Measurement Systems

The paragraph explores historical evidence of weight measurement systems in ancient India, such as the use of balances from the Harappan period. It references 'Arthashastra', a text from the 2nd Century BCE, which provides details on weight measures, including lower denominations for precious metals and guidelines for the development and calibration of balances. The paragraph also touches on the importance of accurate weight measurements in Ayurveda for the correct mixing of ingredients.

15:03

🔍 Ancient Indian Weight Measures and their Significance

This paragraph focuses on the ancient Indian measures for weight, starting with 'paramanu' as the smallest unit. It describes how these measures were calculated and how they relate to larger units like 'vamshi'. The paragraph emphasizes the reasons for having an elaborate system of weight measurements, such as their use in Ayurveda and trade. It concludes by mentioning the transition to the next video, which will discuss the binary system and its ancient Indian origins.

Keywords

💡Indian Number System

The Indian Number System refers to the mathematical conventions developed in ancient India for representing numbers. It includes the concept of zero and the place-value system that is foundational to modern numeral systems. In the video, this system is highlighted as a precursor to the robust number system that allowed for the precise measurement and scientific advancements in ancient India.

💡Units of Measurement

Units of Measurement are standardized quantities used to express the magnitude of physical properties like time, length, and weight. The video emphasizes the importance of these units in trade, science, and scientific discoveries. It showcases how ancient Indians defined units for length, volume, and mass, which are essential for accurate measurement and trade.

💡Srimad Bhagavatam

Srimad Bhagavatam is an ancient Indian text that contains more than just religious content; it also includes detailed descriptions of units of time. The video mentions that the text provides an elaborate description of time units, starting from very small fractions of a second to billions of human years.

💡Paramanu

Paramanu is a term from ancient Indian literature that refers to the smallest physical unit of matter. In the video, it is used to define the smallest measure of time, length, and weight. For instance, the time it takes for light to pass through a paramanu is considered the smallest unit of time, which is calculated to be 1.31 x 10^-5 seconds.

💡Length Measurement

Length Measurement is the process of determining the length or distance between two points. The video describes an ancient system where length was measured in units like paramanu, reno, through T, varthya, and others, culminating in units like angula, which is comparable to a modern centimeter.

💡Time Measurement

Time Measurement involves quantifying the duration or point of time. The video explains how the ancient Indians measured time through experiments like the nadika, which involved timing how long it took for water to fill a hole made by a golden needle, to define units of time from fractions of a second to astronomical periods.

💡Weight Measurement

Weight Measurement is the process of quantifying the mass of an object. The video discusses how ancient Indian systems of weight measurement were essential for Ayurveda and trade, with detailed descriptions of weights in texts like Arthashastra and the use of balances for precise measurement.

💡Arthashastra

Arthashastra is an ancient Indian treatise on economics, military strategy, and political science. The video mentions that it provides guidelines for the development and calibration of balances for weight measurement, emphasizing the importance of accurate measurement in trade and governance.

💡Ayurveda

Ayurveda is a traditional system of medicine native to India. The video points out that Ayurveda required precise measurements of weight to ensure correct mixtures of ingredients, highlighting the practical applications of the ancient Indian system of weights and measures.

💡Binary System

The Binary System is a method of representing numeric values using two symbols, typically 0 and 1. The video teasers that the fundamentals of this system were present in ancient Indian works, suggesting a deep historical connection between Indian mathematical thought and modern computing.

Highlights

Ancient Indian knowledge system had a robust number system and units of measurement essential for trade, science, and scientific discoveries.

Units of measurement for time, length, and weight were defined in ancient Indian texts like Srimad-Bhagavatam.

Paramanu, a fundamental unit, is not directly related to the modern subatomic particle but has a unique time measure.

The time taken for light to pass through a paramanu is the smallest measure of time, approximately 1.31 x 10^-5 seconds.

Paramanu also defines the smallest measures for length and weight, with specific values for each.

Ancient Indian literature provides a detailed table of length measures, starting from paramanu to larger units like yava.

The length of one angula is approximately 1.67 centimeters, based on ancient Indian measures.

Ancient measures of time were described from 10^-5 seconds to 432 billion human years.

The Bhagavata Purana describes an experiment to measure time using a copper vessel and a golden needle.

The thickness and diameter of the golden needle can be calculated using its weight, length, and the specific gravity of gold.

Ancient Indians used balances from the Harappan period, as revealed by archaeological excavations.

Arthashastra, a 2nd Century BCE text, provides detailed measures for weight and guidelines for balance calibration.

Ayurveda required precise weight measurements for the correct mixing of ingredients in medicinal preparations.

Ancient Indian measures for weight started with paramanu, with calculations based on scriptural references.

The video concludes with a mention of the next topic: the ancient binary system and its fundamentals.

Transcripts

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[Music]

so in the previous videos

for five of them

we saw how Indians looked at numbers how

they thought about large numbers number

names and how to uniquely represent

numbers also so we have a robust number

system in place now

the second thing that is required is

units of measurement

because all these are required for all

trade science scientific discoveries

everything we need all these so in this

video we will very briefly see

how the Indians or the ancient Indian

knowledge system as you may call it has

deployed some units of measurement for

time length and weight these three are

very important so let us see how they

have thought about the units of

measurement for this

Begins by defining certain measures of

length volume mass etcetera because it

is a its a work on mathematics so he

need to he needs to put all these in

place so you find some shlokas in which

all these are explained in

srimad-bhagavatam mahapurana

you know people think purana means it's

all God and religious well that is true

there are lot of material in puranas

actually so in srimad bhagavata

mahaprana in book three

there is an elaborate description of

units of time

starting from 10 power minus 5 Seconds

to 432 billion human years this entire

span of time is described in chapter 11

of book 3 actually in srimad-bhagavata

mahapranam

ah in the ancient Indian literature

what we also find is a certain

definition called paramanu

now when you say paramanu I would like

to clarify it is not in any ways

directly related to the modern day sub

atomic particle because paramanu we may

think you know its subatomic particle

it's not directly related ah in that

sense but in some ways it may be

now ah the time taken for light

to pass through a paramano

constitutes the smallest measure of time

so when you say paramanu of time

ah which turns out to be you know if you

use some of the scriptural references

and compute it turns out to be 1.31 into

10 power minus 5 Seconds that seems to

be the elapsed time for light to pass

through a paramanu that's why it is

called paramanu equivalent of time

similarly if you look at the weight and

length of the paramano

it will respectively constitute the

smallest measure for weight and length

so for example the paramanu for length

would be

2.88 into 10 power minus 7 millimeters

similarly the Paramount of our weight

will be 5.79 into 10 power minus 5 grams

in fact all these I have computed based

on the scriptural references and I have

come to these numbers one or two I will

actually show you you know in a tabular

form then we can relate it to that

now we look at the ancient

Indian measures for length what I will

do is let us look at a table and go

through the table and understand how

they have specified different measures

for length

so what you see here

is a table

and as you see here it starts with

what is called

paramanu Raja one paramanu Raja that you

see here is

2.8778 into 10 power 7 millimeter now

the measures go like this it says seven

paramanos will make a Renu

seven rhenos will make a through T which

means 49 permanus will make a through T

so that's how these numbers are coming

seven through T's will make a varthya in

a Raja that's why you know again

multiply by seven you get 343 paramanu

Raja will make one Bhatia in a Raja and

so on so Sasha Raja is

one grain of barley actually so Eva

so ah you know you can keep on Multi

maybe seven of the previous one make the

next one so it is all power seven

actually so that is what these numbers

are showing four crores three lakhs 53

607

ah paramanos will make actually one yava

that's what it because I am just

multiplying it by this table seven seven

seven and all and then that's how you

come here and one anguli parva is seven

yavas again

so again multiply this number by seven

you get this so This many permanent will

make this number

so ah we know this measure actually

anguli parwa from which I back

calculated all of them and reached this

point so that's how this ah numbers of

measures for length are there

and from anguli parwa you go to Greater

measures so you have angula one angula

is again today in modern terms we know

one angula is ah actually you know ah

one point six seven

um you know

um centimeter and so on that so these

numbers are coming everything is in

meters now earlier it was in millimeters

now it is meters so eight eight angulas

make one dhanur mushti OK and three

dhanur mushtis make on prajapatya hasta

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so one yojana is 14.484

kilometers and basically from this

number from angula we kept on

multiplying and arrayed at this number

actually so that's how all these

calculations are made in this particular

modern measures relating modern measures

to the ancient Indian measures

now about time

let us take this bhagavata mahapurana in

which there is a very interesting

experiment mentioned here what you see

here is a shloka Dua dashar the Paloma

so this is the shloka so what this loka

is saying is

12 ardha is half so we are talking of 12

divided by 2 which is 6 and it says six

Palace

so there are six palas chaturbischa also

four also four Palace

so there is another measure then you

have chaturangulahi you are talking

about four inches

so we have now three measures we have

six Pala

four Pala these two are weight measures

and you have four inches which is a

length measure

so we have all these from the first line

of this shloka and the second line it

says

it talks about a swarna Masha

and Marsha is a needle and swarna Masha

is actually a

Golden Needle

that's what it is talking about now

krita is piercing a hole

and then it says

a copper vessel of a certain measure so

now let us make sense of what is going

on in this particular shloka

so it basically says take a copper wire

part weighing six Palace OK which can

hold water of one prasta

is so much gram 640 grams means 640 ml

because water specific gravity is one

and now it says you try to

uh krita make a hole at the bottom

okay and with what with a Golden Needle

swarna Masha

weighing four mashas one Masha is one

gram and the length of four angula so

you know

all that we saw so this is what it is

now the interesting part is gold

and it talks about

a weight of four mashas

correct

and it talks about a length of four

inches

and with this information because of

specific gravity of gold you can

actually get the thickness of the rod

actually

because of weight and length and

specific gravity you can get the

thickness of the rod if you get the

thickness of the rod you can get the

diameter of the hole which is being

pierced

that is all contained in this loka so

you take a Golden Needle four inches

long weighing four mashas that means you

know what is the diameter of the rod

based on specific gravity you can

calculate and with that you are actually

piercing a hole and put that water

copper vessel on a water body

leave the part and start a stopwatch let

us say we start a stopwatch if you start

a stopwatch wait until the now water is

coming from the bottom so wait until the

water is fully

filled fully with water and it is just

about to submerge in the water at that

time stop the watch and record the time

and this elapsed time is called nadika

and with that in bhagavata purana it

relates so many nauticals make something

else to nadikas make something

that is how the entire description of

time is given so we will see the

description now

so here is the table and just now we saw

a definition for nadika which is a

scientific experiment

it says take a

vessel do all that and then put it and

all that kind of thing right but in the

in that particular chapter there are so

many descriptions starts with paramanu

it says two paramanos make an Anu three

anus make a Thrust Reno sixth thrust

rainos make a three T and 18th make away

the 100 Vedas make a lava three lovers

make a Nivea nimesha it goes on up to

is nothing but ah you know it is one ah

one fourth of a daytime or some such

thing so one actually knows one can

calculate what is the

duration of time in seconds that's where

you can start and then back work

everything that's where I started and

then I kept on dividing by this number

to get this paramanu number which turns

out to be some 10 power minus 5.

now we can move the the same chapter

goes further now we have one fourth of a

day then you can talk about a day you

can talk about uh you know

paksha and then you can talk about a

Masa Masa is uh you know two pakshas

make a Masa and two ritus make two masas

make a rutu

and three ritus make a an Ina

dakshana two inas make a human ear

then the lifespan of human ear is 100

years so you can calculate that

then it there is a formula for

calculating the celestial lifespan

it says 360 human years

ah

makes 360 days make one year so 360 into

hundred makes hundred years of a

Celestial lifespan which comes to 36 000

human years and then thousand twelve

thousand Celestial lifespan make a Maha

yoga which comes out to be such a large

number right 43 lakhs 20 43 crores 20

lakhs makes on mahayuga then thousand

Maha yugas make a kalpa so all these

numbers are described in a single

chapter in bhagavata purana and what you

find is you have a description of time

from 10 power minus 5 Seconds to a very

large number that you see here so these

are the descriptions of time this is one

example there are many examples

available I just took one example from

srimad bhagavata purana

now let us talk about weights and

balances and let us look at some

historical facts that are part of it

actually if you look at the excavations

the excavations have revealed that

balances have been in use from the

Harappan period itself that's what all

these Sindhu Sarasota excavations are

telling us

if you look at arthashastra which

belongs to 2nd Century BCE which which

is 2300 years is what we are talking

about

arthashastra provides Vivid details on

measures for weight

there are lower denominations of weights

for precious metals which are being

described there are guidelines for

development of 16 types of balances to

be used

and there are also very interesting you

know descriptions of how verification of

these balances are made once in three

months to ensure that the balances are

calibrated you know even in modern times

you need to constantly calibrate devices

and there is an inspector of devices who

should certify similar things are

described in arthashastra actually

so what you see here is a nice

illustration of a balance which is of

the mauryan time this is a constructed

balance it's not the actual balance

based on the descriptions they have

constructed this balance and what you

also find is ayurveda has multiple

measures for weights because they are

very much required for correct mixing of

the ingredients in ayurveda they use

different components metallic substances

and so on so you need to measure the

correct weight and then mix the right

ingredients therefore there was a well

defined system of Weights is what I am

actually coming to

so now let us look at some ancient

Indian measures for weight look at this

table

and this table actually presents

these measures again we start with

paramanu and one paramanu is

5.787 into 10 power minus 5 grams again

if you ask me how did you calculate

based on this number is known

that four Palace make 48 grams so from

there I backward with all these ratios

and came up to this number so that so

you know we have constructed some of

these numbers so anyway coming back 30

paramanos will make a vamshi

foreign

these days we don't but we were using it

I distinctly remember these kinds of

measures so what I have shown here so

far is an elaborate system

of how length

time and weight have been specified and

there are reasons for it you need

elaborate descriptions of descriptions

of time because astronomical

calculations were involved you need you

know measurements of weight as I told

you you know in ayurveda it is used and

of course in any trade you need to use

therefore therefore you know elaborate

system of calibration of balances

different types of balances all these

were described in arthashastra so with

this we will conclude this section of ah

units of measurement that ancient

Indians have been using we will move to

the next video which is a very

interesting video which talks about how

this binary system which we have been

using in the last 60 70 years and the

fundamentals of that were actually

available in an ancient work which we

will see in the next video

[Music]

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