Previous Year Question
With reference to the scientific progress of ancient India, which of the statements given below are correct?
Different kinds of specialised surgical instruments were in common use by the 1st century AD.
Transplant of internal organs in the human body had begun by the beginning of the 3rd century AD.
The concept of sine of an angle was known in the 5th century AD.
The concept of cyclic quadrilaterals was known in the 7th century AD.
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
Correct Answer: C
Detailed Solution
Statement 1 is accepted as correct. The Sushruta Samhita contains a systematic description of a large number of specialised surgical instruments. Modern medical-history studies record approximately 120–125 types of instruments, including sharp and blunt instruments, catheters, probes and tubular instruments. Specialised surgical instrumentation in ancient India is therefore well established.
A chronological caution is necessary. The exact dating of Sushruta and the Sushruta Samhita is debated, and the surviving text developed through several stages. Thus, “in common use by the first century AD” should not be treated as an archaeologically fixed date.
Statement 2 is incorrect. Ancient Indian medicine provides evidence for rhinoplasty, skin grafting, cataract surgery and several other procedures, but there is no reliable historical evidence for transplantation of internal human organs by the beginning of the third century CE. Modern histories of transplantation associate Sushruta with skin grafting and reconstructive surgery, not internal-organ transplantation.
Thus, skin grafting is not the same as internal-organ transplantation. Mythological accounts involving replacement of limbs or heads cannot be treated as evidence of actual clinical transplantation.
Statement 3 is correct. Aryabhata composed the Aryabhatiya in 499 CE. It contains a trigonometric treatment of jya/ardha-jya and a table of sines. The concept of sine was therefore clearly known in Indian mathematics in the fifth century CE.
A useful linguistic fact is that the Indian term jya eventually passed through Arabic transmission and contributed to the later Latin term sinus, from which the modern word “sine” developed. Aryabhata, 499 CE → jya/sine table.
Statement 4 is correct. Brahmagupta composed the Brahmasphutasiddhanta in 628 CE. It contains important formulae for the area and diagonals of a cyclic quadrilateral. The mathematical treatment of cyclic quadrilaterals is therefore firmly attested in seventh-century India.
Sushruta tradition → specialised surgical instruments
3rd century CE → no evidence of internal-organ transplantation
Aryabhata, 499 CE → jya/sine
Brahmagupta, 628 CE → cyclic quadrilateral