Ancient inventions and discoveries of India

We all know India is a very ancient country and so is its culture and civilisation. Indian people for their comfortable living  made many remarkable inventions without which we would not be existing today. Many of them are very simple but significant in daily life. I am mentioning only few here. There are many more to add to this list.

1. Starting with the simplest - Button

The earliest known button, was originally used more as an ornament than as a fastening. The earliest known was found at Mohenjodaro in the Indus Valley [now Pakistan]. It is made of a curved shell and about 5000 years old.
 

2. Ruler 

Rulers made from Ivory were in use by the Indus Valley Civilization in what today is Pakistan and some parts of Western India prior to 1500 BC 

 

 

3. Ink

Indians have been writing with ink since the fourth century BC. 

4. Cotton gin

Cotton Gin is a machine used to separate cotton from the seeds. The evidence of this machine was found through the carvings on Ajanta caves where the pictures of these machines were engraved. Dating back to 500 AD, this hand roller machine was locally called Charkha.

5. Shampoo

  Shampoo comes from the word champo. The Nawabs of Bengal used it for head massages at first. Over the years, it became shampoo.

6. Dock                                                  

One of the earliest docks of the world was the one in Lothal, Gujarat. Oceanographers think that the Harappans must have possessed knowledge relating to tides. So, they could build such a dock on the ever-shifting course of the River Sabarmati.

7. Flush toilets

The Indus Valley civilization was the first to use toilets with flushes. The city had an advanced sewage system too.

8. Number zero

                                                              

The nr. zero was invented independently in India and by the Maya. The concept of zero first appeared in India around A.D. 458. Mathematical equations were spelled out or spoken in poetry or chants rather than symbols. In 628, a Hindu astronomer and mathematician named Brahmagupta developed a symbol for zero — a dot underneath numbers.

9. Surgery

                                                                                        

Cataract surgery and plastic surgery were first performed by the ancient physician Sushruta. These surgeries dated back to 2000BCE and his work were later translated to Arabic language and gradually passed on to European countries.

10. Diamonds    

Diamonds were first mined in India. Huge deposits of diamonds were found in Central India and it gradually developed as a precious stone. India till 18 ^th  century was the only country where diamonds were found and were later on exported to other countries. I