What the Ancients Knew - India

India a country of extremes like no other of a staggering diversity where ethnicity culture religion and language come together in a dazzling kaleidoscope of humanity in at 7,000 year old history India has provided the world with its riches however India's invaluable contributions to science and technology have all too often been overlooked they've become so much a part of our daily life we've taken them for granted India's ancient knowledge remains an untold story if you know how profoundly India has shaped the modern world that it was India that came up with the concept that fueled the global high-tech revolution that it was India that helped nurture the roots of modern medicine as it turns out the key to scientific and technological innovations of the present and it may be of the future have long lain hidden in the untold story of what the ancient Indians knew the colorful impressions in the ancient city of Delhi are almost overwhelming for someone coming from the West exotic and totally foreign they reflect a culture that has one foot in the past and the other solidly planted in the future with poverty on one side India has one of the fastest-growing economies on the other India is poised to lead the world into the future just why is an important part of the untold story of India's scientific and technological contributions contributions that have been decisive in shaping the present to look at one of the most astounding feats of India's past I travelled to Jaipur some 300 miles south of Delhi Jaipur is famous for its legendary Pink Palace but I was looking for a scientific treasure magnificent scale here in Jaipur the Hindu belief spurred an innovation of unprecedented precision much like in the modern Western world the movements of the Sun the planets and the stars were believed to affect human life in order to determine the most auspicious times for important events like festivals or marriages precision was crucial astrology is pseudoscience claiming divination by the positions of the planets the Sun and the moon gave rise to one of India's oldest and most important Sciences astronomy I'd heard and read about the Jantar Mantar but nothing quite prepared me for this unique sight the Gentile montar is one of five observatories built by Maharaja Jai Singh more than three hundred years ago what looks like a giant playground is in fact an architectural an astronomical marvel unlike the small metal tools the Europeans developed to read the Stars some of the 16 astronomical instruments built here at a stone mortar and plaster are the biggest in the world prior to Jason's time astronomers relied on smaller instruments such as the astrolabe the immense forms the Jason built here and elsewhere in India are the only ones of their kind why is it that an instrument like this is so big resident astronomer dr. s Bhattacharya explained the importance of scale or conference and the large number of markings you can have on a circumference and really small angles you can measure - and is that true of all of the instruments they're also big because that makes them all more accurate yes exactly all measurements can be really accurate so the bigger it is the greater the precision yes exactly the larger there's a circumference and the smaller angular majors you can a mark on this dial at Jantar Mantar the ancients could track the movement and position of the celestial bodies with a higher level of accuracy than anyone before them believe it or not the object behind me is a sundial it's not one of those cute little circular ones you see it is in fact the largest sundial in the world this equinoctial sundial is called Samrat Yantra which translates to supreme instrument it is just under seventy-five feet high and Jai Singh's most important creation and these steps run a hundred and sixty-four feet along the Noman the structure that creates the angle of the sundial Jai Singh oriented the structure to the north on an east-west line he positioned the axis of a hemisphere to create two quadrants using geometry he calculated the angle of the ramp at 27 degrees equivalent to the latitude of Jaipur so the ramparts exactly to the celestial North Pole the shadow from the ramp falls onto the quadrant showing the local time accurate to within seconds so can you tell me how accurate is this Thunder well that's it dr. s Bhattacharya the assistant director of the nearby Birla planetarium in the source explained summary andrás accuracy well it made a smallest measure of time is two seconds each of these is two second smallest ones are two seconds but there are problems of course because Sun is not a point pinpoint source if the difference between the shadow and the light is not obviously your error can be more than two seconds but still that's pretty pretty accurate accurate this ancient Indian innovation was used around the world for hundreds of years Jai Singh Samrat Yantra was astonishing and that equinoxes and solstices could be determined down to the second both of these celestial events are rather important to astronomical or astrological systems around the world but he didn't create something out of nothing Jai Singh's designs capitalized on a dimension of Science and Technology with much older roots in India's history mathematics it all started with a dream according to Hindu tradition the world began from nothing when it was dreamed by Brahma the creator god of India Brahmas waking and sleeping pattern was believed to govern vast cycles of history so vast indeed that a single Brahma day lasted one Kalpa that is 4.32 billion years almost the same timespan modern geologists estimate to be the age of planet Earth ancient Hindu chants and writings contain calculations of these Brahma cycles outlining Indian mathematical works back to the 4th century BC interestingly the ancients use words to express numbers the word arms was used as the number 2 since humans have two arms but words didn't lend themselves for calculations so around 10 BC they were replaced by symbols prior to the Indians the Babylonians had a few symbols this symbol signified 160 and 3,600 and this symbol signified 10 obviously with only two symbols the applications were limited to write six it took six symbols even in the Roman system it took two symbols in the Indian system however it took only one symbol for more convenience and accuracy the ancient Hindu language Sanskrit replaced word numbers with nine single digits it is the Indian system of nine digits that we use today traders and merchants were looking for an easy way to count and calculate so commerce became the motor for ancient Indian mathematics and a numeric system that invented this crucial digit it's the last symbol of this ingenious system for which we remain forever indebted to the ancient Indian thinkers zero for them the symbol stood for the Sanskrit words shunya meaning nothing but once the concept became a symbol mathematical computation was born just like Brahmas dream from nothing came everything the impact of India's long history with a zero can be felt across our high-tech world no zero no binary system no computers without the concept of zero modern mathematicians and physicists would all be out of a job all of this the computers the software would be impossible without the preeminent ancient Indian invention one that's been called the equal of any single human achievement right up there with mastering fire or the invention of the wheel the invention of the concept of zero numbers have become so much a part of our daily lives that we forget where they came from and if you ask most people about the origin of our numbers they'll probably say they were Arabic and that would be wrong it's not difficult to see how this mistake occurred Arab traders introduced the 10-digit system to the West around 900 AD but even in their own records Arab scholars refer to the Indian system in all likelihood the Arabs picked up the Indian way of counting in a marketplace much like this one it was a time when knowledge was bartered and traded like a commodity when merchants from China or Arabia travel to India for treasures found nowhere else like spices gems and a special metal with far-reaching impact in search of the first advanced material in the ancient world I traveled north to the foot of the Himalaya Mountains to find clues to the legendary wood steel you from the dawn of their civilization the Indians wisely utilized what the land provided devising methods to shape nature to meet their needs India's history of metalworking is documented in some of the oldest written records in the world it is legendary yet only a few tantalizing clues to the source of that legend remain here along the road to the Himalayas I'd heard there were groups of itinerant workers who still retained one of the main skills of the ancient Indian metal craft the Gedaliah lojas of blacksmiths whose smelting traditions reach back more than 3,000 years watching them hand forged simple tools carried me back in time I could easily imagine how the ancients melted and forged their iron their methods seemed to have changed very little iron ore from deposits across India was placed in a modern brick furnace charged with charcoal bellows provided an air supply that brought the temperature up to 1,100 degrees Celsius the molten iron ore bloom collected and cooled at the bottom in order to make a tool or a weapon the ancients reheated and hammered the bloom into shape much like these lojas do with bars of scrap iron after a few whacks with the hammer I came to appreciate the blacksmith's skills moment and what's more I realized that while the ancestors of these lahars forged everyday tools that contributed to India's wealth it wasn't sickles but swords that brought the world to India's Shores when in the 11th century AD European Crusaders felt the effect of Islamic swords in battle their war stories launched the legend of the Damascus blade one blow from the sword they said cleaver European helmet without turning its edge or sliced just as easily through a floating silk scarf though the swords were forged in Damascus the capital of modern Syria the steel and the technology came from India the Europeans took thousands of these fabled blades home determined to uncover their secret yet the formula remained a mystery for centuries besides smelting I looked for another clue in my search for the fabled wood steel to learn more i traveled north to the foot of the himalaya mountains following in the footsteps of ancient traders for whom no distance was too far to get their hands on the fabled woods I was in good company even Alexander the Great had sought this ancient Indian treasure today at winless steel company in the town of Dehradun they're making replicas of the Damascus blade now of course they use modern tools but the basic approach remains the same forging shaping and polishing constitute the major steps in creating a blade still the big question remains whether the modern replicas retained more than just the look of the legendary steel one legend would have us believe that to give the sword its finishing touch the metal was cooled by thrusting it through the body of a muscular slave to have his strength flow into the sword and that's not the only outrageous tale others believe that the strength of Damascene steel came from quenching the sword in the urine of a redheaded boy or in a goat that it eaten ferns for three days neither of which got them very far in the centuries after the Crusades many sought to replicate the swords of Damascus but most achieved only the appearance not the properties in fact it took nearly till 1975 to unlock the secret of the Syrian sword of Indian wood steel the irony is the most important legacy of the ancient Indian metal workers was not the recipe of the steel but a byproduct of the search for it over the centuries many metallurgist came to believe the blades secret lay in its unique surface pattern called water structure the pattern some suggested indicated that carbon content was the key and while that was true all attempts to reproduce would steal failed and we have from the logistic of my salsa in a modern lab where they develop new steel products I met mr. SK Mahajan a sheet metal expert okay what what changes with steel he's benefiting from the search for the secret to would steal a lot of developments and now don't worry Victor white goods across Europe researchers compared different metals under a microscope they never found the secret to the Magnificent metal but what they did find was a lot of very useful information so one byproduct of the search for wood steel was metallurgical microscopy discovered in 1822 it is still used today to evaluate the strength and purity of metals this is what happens inside they died so you're that all-england to see another byproduct of the search for wood steel I took mr. Mahajan up on an offer to inspect a rolling mill this is one of the largest sheetmetal producers in India the centuries metallurgist and blacksmiths tried mixing iron with everything from zinc to lead in an effort to replicate wood steel along the way they took note of various new combinations and the interesting properties they had in 1822 an English researcher by the name of Michael Faraday added chromium he didn't get woods but he did get a steel alloy which we could hardly live without stainless steel evolved from Faraday's inspired research what would we do without it using heat and pressure the alloy steel sheets are processed to become appliances automobiles and other everyday tools and utensils what makes stainless steel so desirable is that it doesn't rust a property we easily take for granted today steel alloys are the backbone of modern life everywhere in the world having a profound death to the ancient Indians we use them anywhere from airplanes to operating rooms but besides wood steel the ancient Indian metal workers had more tricks up their sleeves and to see some of their most monumental achievements are traveled to the East Indian state of Orissa because it was here where in the 13th century AD King the Russian had ever commissioned a magnificent temple dedicated to the Hindu Sun God Surya Sun worship is one of the oldest forms of religion not only in India conarc temple is the embodiment of suriya's daily ride across the sky his chariot has 12 wheels one for each month of the year it's pulled by seven horses one for each day of the week Kenard temple is one of india's most astounding sites though much of the original structure has decayed I could see that the remains bear witness to the accomplishments of the ancient builders researchers know a lot about how the temple was built because of the locals deep attachment to it the ancient Indian contractors kept detailed accounts of the construction on palm leaf manuscripts like this one but some local families kept the original manuscripts from which we have an astonishingly detailed record of the project stretching back a thousand years organized with mathematical precision the menu scripts tell of a highly technical building process which was completed in only 12 years stone blocks were the principal building material ironworkers played an important role in this ancient construction technique they were the ones to forge these interlocking clamps designed to hold the stone blocks firmly in place what is new in this temple is that its builders relied on the innovative powers of the ancient metal workers using the same basic technique of heating iron ingots and hammering them together blacksmiths created beams up to 20 feet long and weighing over five tons you can see here where the individual ingots were joined together in so doing the ancient blacksmiths created the first beams used in construction a remarkable application of a simple technology though there's evidence that other cultures used metal to join sections of stone the ancient Indians were the first to incorporate long metal beams as structural components this is an impressive piece of engineering hand forged iron girders support massive stone lintels to form the supporting structure of the building during early explorations of the site more than 20 girders were found throughout the temple now given that each of these girders weighs around 10,000 pounds and the stone lintel probably just as much it's truly amazing that the workers could lift such a massive weight the mystery was solved when researchers analyzed the palm leaf manuscripts it seems the builders relied on an imaginative mechanism created by the blacksmiths and a local source of exhilarating hand-forged iron pulleys and ropes the stone lintels were placed on wooden planks elephants were trained to step on these to raise the lintel pieces in the air while a team of men pulled on the ropes to set them on the girders throughout the construction elephants did the heavy work from lifting to grading they were not only the cranes but the bulldozers leveling the building site before the foundation was laid their labor has made them immortal when you think how important elephant power was to the temple builders statues like this one make a lot of sense the elephants deserve to be remembered for their contribution to one of the great monuments of ancient engineering and architecture while temples like Kanak rise to the skies as monuments to the innovative power and riches of ancient India other extraordinary structures were built in the opposite direction underground water buildings like this one became the legacy of the ancient Indian craftsmen they were the lifesavers in the ancients never-ending struggle against flood and drought the monsoons powerful rhythms have shaped life in India since earliest times today they continue to do so 90 percent of India's rain falls during a three-month downpour the deluge saturates wetlands and swells the sacred rivers which Hindus viewers goddesses brought to Earth to help Humanity for those living in arid regions the monsoon brings life the need for water during the nine dry months inspired the ancient Indians to develop a unique architecture this is one of the most spectacular examples of ancient water harvesting structures this steppe pond in northern India taps into a deep reservoir where it has believed sacred rivers mix this stunning structure allows access to groundwater year-round it's step architecture is one of India's most ingenious inventions showcasing the experts skills of the ancient Indian stone workers this style of architecture which is unique to India is called a water building this particular one the Qian Bao Li step pond is the largest of its kind step architecture which could be round or rectangular was designed to meet both practical and spiritual needs in India's driest regions stone blocks became steps facilitating the long walk down to the life-saving resource and a long descent it was the pond is over five stories down and fathers still when the water level drops during the dry months with stone blocks you could build square corners and curves and keep the layers level regardless of the incline whereas temple architects used stone blocks to build upwards creating vaults and chambers stepwells and ponds were built in the reverse direction but first they had to find the water a large tree was often the clue to the source near the tree a rectangular well was dug to check the depth of the groundwater and confirm its purity the well was widened into a rectangular pond which was then lined with stone blocks the step architecture kept the walls close together to reduce evaporation and ensure that the pond stayed cool allegedly this was done with a special effect in mind Indians have a long tradition of water cooling methods evidence indicates that evaporation was put to a novel purpose centuries ago European accounts of the 19th century tell of rows of shallow popery vessels containing water which were covered with straw and exposed to a draught the evaporation chilled the water and could even produce small quantities of ice let's see if it works I waited only a few minutes and while I didn't expect to see any ice the thermometer told me it really works it's actually dropped by a few degrees it seems like the ancients had an innovative way of making their lives a little more comfortable dating back a thousand years water buildings like these show the advancement of ancient Indian science and technology and what's more the water harvesting techniques that sustain them for centuries are now inspiring modern applications one project may just become a role model for others La Parrilla is a small farming village some two hours drive from Jaipur in one of the driest regions of India in a good year the three monsoon months bring 12 to 35 inches of rain tulip area and that's usually enough to provide water for the people their livestock and their crops all year round however the monsoon is well the monsoon in some years it brings 35 inches of rain in other years only five with the population of the area increasing water shortages become a serious problem in 1982 a water management crisis inspired a local visionary he tackled the problem using an ancient it innovative approach I'm sub loki karde ogre k or some low animal Gurgaon Laxman Singh a member of a prominent local family has dedicated his life to reviving traditional rainwater harvesting methods in a parched and barren land Balaban a highly law and Appel in Albany mm-hmm come pick up mr. Singh explained that before he took up this cause most modern approaches had failed because they were foreign to the villages so may I play gong Kiriath on there so instead he reminded them of their ancient wisdom man dubbed Elijo the water methods used in the construction of step ponds and stepwells inspired the Lapp area squares enough courage I make an elegant based on an ancient technique the starting point is a gentle slope in the landscape a large patch of the slope is divided into rectangular units of approximately 200 by 400 feet each unit is enclosed by dikes along the three sides that lie towards the lower part of the gradient they called chokers meaning squares the zig-zag pattern on the land allows rainwater to enter the square and fill it up excess flows into the next square and then on to the next runoff flows into a storage pond or tank collected water percolates through a soil filter into the groundwater which is pumped up through the village wells as mr. Singh explained the process in more detail I realized that this low tech high intelligence irrigation strategy manages a limited water supply most efficiently in fact Laxmi Singh's approach was producing more drinking water as well as sufficient water for their pastures and farmlands as it turned out the ancient technology was very successful two figures indicate the success here in 1982 the villages largest pond in local powers the flower tank irrigated 50 acres now it irrigates 700 that's a 14 fold increase based on what the ancients knew and what's more the example set by La Parrilla conserved not only as a role model for India but for other arid regions across the planet looking back in time India's 5000 year old tradition with cotton as the subcontinent blooming and booming again nearly 200 years ago it helps spark the Industrial Revolution and today this unrecognized contribution as India poised to regain its first place in the global textile market providing the world with the fabric of our modern lifestyle this is the chandi chowk bazaar in all Delhi the thousands of years traders came here to find something only India could offer a fabric so versatile that when its virtues soft fine and airy were revealed the demand fueled an economic surge that changed the world I'm standing in a sea of a product that made India bloom and boom everything in this market is made of cotton deep within these colorful fibers is another untold story of India's contribution to our technological past cotton was first domesticated 5000 years ago in the Indus Valley a part of ancient India that is today located in western Pakistan each fibrous plume is called a bowl which contains many tiny seeds rich in vitamins and oil ancient farmers fed the seeds to their livestock long before the true treasure of the plant was discovered called wool bearing trees by the Greeks cotton plants were traded across the ancient world but few devised an efficient technology to mine their magic cotton seeds are extremely difficult to extract especially when jinda by head but the ancient Indians had already invented a more efficient mechanical device millennia ago the choker uses two rollers per mechanism similar to an antique clothes wringer which pinches the cotton balls pulling the fibers from their seeds modern Jenning machines borrow the principle from the ancient choker which was the standard Jenning tool for nearly 4,000 years when in the 18th century the Europeans tried to mass-produce Indian quality cotton cheaply something unforeseen happened European inventors stimulated the Industrial Revolution launching the age of machines and although machines were able to replicate most of the legendary Indian process one crucial manual step was never duplicated by a machine long ago Indian craftsmen pioneered a tool that gave their cloth a unique quality the origins of the spinning wheel is somewhat obscured that the earliest recorded appearance was in India for millennia thread was spun by hand and with simple spindles then around a thousand years ago the spinning wheel was developed as a simple yet enormous ly efficient technological leap the wheel turns the spindle which gently twists and collects the thread the spinning wheel was so efficient that in skillful hands the normal daily output could be doubled and yet the legendary quality was retained heavy industry may never be able to replicate the softness and quality of thread the spinning wheel producers Indian fabric made in the traditional way is treasured today in much the same way it was revered by the ancient traders yet when spinning was industrialized it changed the way we live this mass-produced easy to care for material which they're not as soft as hand spun fabric could now be shared around the world today cotton is the pivot point of a modern lifestyle without cotton none of us would have t-shirts or wear our favorite pants blue jeans you wouldn't think it but 40 percent of our clothing contains cotton with centuries of deeply rooted experience India is once again poised to become the world's leading supplier of this ancient material into the production area thank you thank you in this vast modern processing plant in alwah two hours drive southwest of Delhi prenez syntax processes 800 tons of cotton per day a far cry from what a farmer could produce with a choker here they spend some 10 million yards of thread a day more than all the spinning wheels in India could have produced in a year the technology that is likely to have originated in India hundreds of years ago is now re-imported from Germany Japan and Switzerland by way of these modern machines but the process is becoming ever more efficient I came to realize how much ancient knowledge contributed to the importance of the marketplace we're not only good but ideas have been bartered exchanged and spread around the world for thousands of years merchants have come to buy sell and trade here in the bazaars of India returning home with Indian cotton goods new ideas perhaps ingots of raw wood steel and of course the famed Indian spices so coveted around the world many of these spices have medicinal properties in ancient times most medicines came from plants according to the ancient Indian physiological texts the state of one's health can be attributed to one's eating habits science has shown that some plants have curative powers willow bark is the basic ingredient for aspirin spices like garlic are believed to boost the immune system and help with minor ailments drawing from these ancient prescriptions herbal medicine has become big business not only in India but worldwide native spices and herbs are mixed in a variety of combinations by more than 8,000 pharmacies global demand is difficult to calculate but Hoebel products in India alone constitute a billion-dollar market herbal medicines are distributed in more than 20,000 dispensaries nationwide but the use of herbs and spices is only one step towards health and India's comprehensive medical philosophy sorry near the sacred Ganges River at the Kripalu Bag ashram I found the ancient Indian healing practices still very much alive this ashram houses an Ayurvedic clinic that treats hundreds of patients a day Ayurveda in Sanskrit means the science of life which defines health as total well-being a medical diagnosis therefore does not only focus on the immediate symptom but on the patient's relationship with food and herbs the weather and the seasons and even his or her personal relationships au Veda was the first system of medicine to appear in the world and finally after 5000 years this holistic approach is now embraced in the West yeah he had Emma Graham yoga which is one of the most important aspects of Ayurveda has become very popular I'm here to learn what I can about Indian medicine since it all began with yoga yoga is where I begin let's see what they can teach me I joined the class at a crucial point they were just getting ready for a breathing lesson they all roll body roll direction before merhaba ancient yoga principles emphasized the importance of deep breathing and muscle control recent findings indicate that yoga boosts the cardiovascular system and relieves anxiety it seemed to work the yogic breathing exercise though a bit unusual invigorated me immediately it may look simple but I've just learned that breathing which is one of the foundations of yoga is a complicated business I have a lot to learn how protect his vehicle many ticket you see my man thong yoga master Ramdev ji took the time to tell me more oh my as a medical technique yoga's goals are to restore the flow of vital energy around the body to treat a variety of illnesses or is the Ameri heart gear blocker silica gay gangs are these old-school methods have recently had to withstand our Western benchmarks of science don't you got even yogi Ramdev ji thought a demonstration would best make the point postures and stretching appear to increase circulation to the limbs the breathing induces relaxation and with practice you can gain control of muscles you never knew your head while yoga has reportedly helped patients suffering from afflictions like asthma and arthritis the long lines of people at this clinic were clearly hoping that our Veda could do much more I couldn't think of a better way to learn about our Veda than to become a patient of an Ayurvedic doctor so I scheduled an appointment with dr. Guevara hello can I come in it's prescription letter yes Lisa no thank you I would like a checkup like a general Ayurvedic check-up please from there Australia okay I tell you words decide whether dr. kovala explained that in Ayurveda it is all about your humans hmm good health has to do with the balance of internal forces or doshas but he hasn't got them but to begin with dr. Guevara started like any Western doctor would yes he listened to my heart and lungs yes yes yes okay okay okay then he switched to a Aveda eyes your news he examined the color and texture of my fingernails and eyes which could indicate a dosha imbalance just like I heard the pulse examination was the clincher I know since 13th century Vedic texts pulse examination is one of the oldest forms of medical diagnosis but vandagriff each of the three internal forces or doshas pulses through the radial artery dr. Guevara index finger read via which stands for air and ether his middle finger picked up Peter that his fire and water and kafir earth and water registered on his ring finger Nadi is completely fit no thank you okay he go oh you are totally fit Tom once he had pronounced that my doshas were in balance and that I was in good health dr. Gavin taught me some of our Vedas little-known accomplishments it was amazing to learn that hundreds of years before European medicine Ayurvedic doctors had already developed a remarkable range of specialties they included psychiatry pediatric ophthalmology toxicology gynecology and surprisingly surgery as it turns out the ancient Indians had designed surgical instruments and developed unprecedented operating techniques centuries ago recently one of their ancient techniques which was once used to repair a punishment for adultery has become rather popular leaving a single aim throughout India's history even medicine has taken its twists and turns tracking the legacy of the ancient Ayurvedic surgeons led me to one of Delhi's largest hospitals I had arranged a meeting with dr. Lach --is-- Kumar a plastic surgeon familiar with Indian medical history he assured me that one ancient Indian invention in particular was making a lot of people very happy today in ancient times the standard punishment for adultery was removal of the nose this gave ancient surgeons plenty of opportunities to practice rhinoplasty or as it's more commonly known today a nose job dr. Kumar's fair to say that Indian doctors have been doing what you do for a very long time well this operation of rhinoplasty at evolve in India the earliest description that 600 BC was the tissue taken from the cheek right but the basic principle remains seems so what you're saying is that the practice you do today is exactly the same as the ancient practice the site because the rigors of Brandner a rhinoplasty has been practiced for ages ages we mark except for a slightly different measuring technique little has changed in the procedure invented by the ancient Indian surgeons making the North Ann leaf was used to measure the area to be covered a flap of skin was dissected from the cheek or the forehead and flipped over one side remained attached to provide the blood supply the flap was then sutured to scarified areas on the cheek wooden tubes were inserted to form the nostril the essential technique of moving skin from one place to another is exactly the same as the ancient technique well that's right why we take the tissue from the forehead is because the skin here is quite elastic and when we have taken sufficiently skin from the forehead we can actually mobilize the skin to close the defect so you can get a new nose and clean up the wrinkles on your forehead all at the same time well that's right you'll get a dead forehead because removed as a bonus I wouldn't mind a bit of that ha ha ha what most impressed me about my visit to dr. Kumar's was the sheer antiquity of plastic surgery for centuries this ancient Indian idea has been a true blessing for those who desperately needed us and for those who are merely looking for a little improvement as I left the clinic and looked into the faces of modern India I could not help but think what a debt we owe to this ancient culture for mathematics to architecture what we wear to what we eat our lives have been shaped by an ancient wisdom for 7,000 years India has provided the world with its riches India's contributions to science and technology may be obscured by time but there is little doubt they provided the springboard for advances which shaped our world given India's track record one thing seems certain what the ancient Indians knew is worth rediscovering you

Channel: Mantikore420

Views: 851,268

Rating: 4.7996578 out of 5

Keywords: Discovery, science channel, Discovery Channel (TV Network), india, what the ancients knew, ancient india, history, plastic surgery, zero

Id: qMXXILYpGaQ

Length: 49min 33sec (2973 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 27 2012