Theory Of Gravity : Newton Or Bramhagupta ?

It was late Summer of 1666 when a apple fell on Newton and boom , he shouted ‘Eureka’ i.e. a
word used as celebration of an invention in Greek and thus pages of science changed forever
because we got to know about the Gravitational force of earth. This is the same gravity which
makes the Moon falling towards earth and earth being pulled towards the sun.
This is what we have been taught yet , now tighten your seatbelts because we are taking you
back in history through our time machine of knowledge digging deep into the science of our
sages.
It was 7th Century of common Era a book named “Grahopadesh” mentioned a strange thing
talking about gravity “The earth on all its sides is the same; all people on the earth stand upright,
and all heavy things fall down to the earth by a law of nature, for it is the nature of the earth to
attract and to keep things, as it is the nature of water to flow …” , this was very common and
accurate as per our today’s proven study of gravity. This great scientist born approx thousand
years before Newton was the director of the astronomical observatory of Ujjain, “Brahmagupta”.
He was born in 598 CE in Bhinmal city of modern Day Rajasthan , his father was Jisnugupta a
famous astrologer of his time. Since childhood this boy has had a deep interest in the study of
astronomy and mathematics. He went to Ujjain ,for further research and study which was one of
the greatest knowledge centers in the world of its time. At the age of 30 in year 628 , he wrote a
book named “Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta” in this book elaborating the Aryabhatta’s invention of
zero ,and later he wrote another famous book ‘Khandakhadyaka and gave a detailed analysis
on computing zero as a whole number and many more solutions of mathematics including
solution of linear indeterminate equation.
Bramhagupta gave us the formula to calculate exact dates of solar and lunar eclipse . His
calculation of the value of Pi was ‘3.16’ which is very near to the actual value of ‘3.14’. He also
tried calculating the actual Circumference of earth which was very near to the approximate
value after its been proven today. With no doubt he taught with his genius mind how to calculate
the position of planets in our solar system just with the magic of mathematics. We can dig more
deep and his inventions are not going to end soon
Bramhagupta must be sounding like another enthusiastic kid right to you all,now imagine doing
all this invention approx 1400 years back from today ,sitting in an old age laboratory of Ujjain ,
without any electricity , instruments or even a fountain pen. He considered himself more of an
astronomer and doing math just because he liked it ,but today he is more famous for his
mathematical contributions to this world. And we are blessed because we are his proud
descendants and it’s now our responsibility to make our nation more proud .

Fun Fact (1) :- Bhaskara II (ad 1150) is so much charmed of Brahmagupta’s intellect that he
respectfully refers to him as “Mahamatiman” (very intelligent person) and even confers the
unique “Ganita Chakra Chudamani” (the gem of the circle of mathematicians) title on
Brahmagupta.

Fun Fact (2) :- He calculated the length of the solar year down to the second as 365 days, 5
minutes, and 19 seconds, which is quite precise based on what scientists have now measured.