What the Ancients Did for Us - The Indians

India is one of the oldest and richest civilizations in the world. It is home to the world’s first planned cities, where every house had its own bathroom and toilet five thousand years ago.Harappan cities, like the 4,000 year old Dholavira were built to a grid-plan and boasted the world’s first sewage system. Herbal remedies, using ingredients such as cocoa butter, ginseng and ginger, invented by Indians have been adopted into Western medicine. Surgery, including early plastic surgery, was developed by Indians.Two thousand years ago the Indians pioneered plastic surgery, reconstructing the noses and ears on the faces of people who had been disfigured through punishment or warfare. They performed eye operations such as cataract removal and invented inoculation to protect their population from Smallpox, saving thousands of lives. Inoculation against smallpox emerged centuries before Edward Jenner. The Ancient Indians have not only given yoga, meditation and complementary medicines, but have furthered the knowledge of science, maths – and invented Chaturanga, which became the game of chess. Chess is a simplified version of the ancient Indian game of military strategy chaturanga.Indians invented easy numerals to count, they are the numbers 1-9 and ‘zero’, without which there would be no computers or digital age. Unfairly we call this system of counting Arabic numbers – a misplaced credit.

To create images of their gods they invented a technique of casting bronze called 'Lost Wax', a five-millennia old process still in use today. India was one of the first civilizations to successfully extract Iron from ore and they quickly learnt how to cast huge structures with it - some of them surviving. Their metallurgists went on to invent steel which they called Wotz.This metal working resulted in wonders like the iron pillar of Mehrouli. It would take the British until the 19th century to rediscover same substance.In 1790 the Indians defeated the British Army in the battle of Pollilur with a secret invention – the rocket. The British eventually stole the idea and used it against Napoleon's fleet.

Perhaps the most important invention the Indians have given is cotton. 3500 years ago whilst others were lumbering around in animal skins and itchy wool they were cultivating a plant and weaving it into a material that would revolutionise the west. They also pioneered the printing and dyeing of cotton in a staggering array of colours and invented the spinning wheel - something Europe wouldn't catch up with until the Middle Ages. The mechanisation of this simple device by Hargreaves and Arkwright led to the industrial revolution and turned Britain into a superpower.

This is the documentary , "What the Ancients Did for Us - The Indians".This episode features reports from Darling in India and demonstrations from Hart-Davis, Jopson and other experts that examine the ideas and inventions that emerged from Ancient India.