Ancient India’s Science by Michelle Veevers

The first known use of numbers in India was in the time of harappans, about 300 B.C. Indians began using the counting tokens, but later switched to writing their numbers down, using pictographs. Mathematicians were using the idea of infinity and later came up with the number system.

By 100 A.D., Indians were writing numbers. Indian mathematics started spreading to West Asia, then to Arica and Europe. In 2500 B.C., the harappans had created a sewage system at their city.

From what we know, harappans were knew a lot about geometry. India’s greatest invention was the number zero. They started using zero as a placeholder, to make it easier to add and multiply numbers. Through their translations, zero means nothing.

About 1000 B.C., doctors in northern India wrote the Atharva Veda, a medical textbook explaining how to treat diseases. The Athrava Veda says that diseases are caused by bad spirits, and to treat the disease by killing the spirits with poisons or spells.

Possibly the oldest system of astrology in the world belongs to India. Indian astrology makes little use of the constellations in the sky and is based on the date, place, and time of birth.