Every time you check a bank balance, play a board game or wash your hair, there is a fair chance you are using an idea that first took shape on the Indian subcontinent. Here are seven of the most surprising ones.
Zero and the place-value system
Indian mathematicians developed the decimal place-value system and treated zero as a number in its own right. Brahmagupta set out rules for arithmetic with zero in 628 CE, and carbon dating of the Bakhshali manuscript suggests a dot used as a placeholder goes back to the 3rd or 4th century CE. Without this idea, modern accounting and computing would look very different.
Chess
Its ancestor, chaturanga, appeared in India around the 6th century. The pieces stood for the four divisions of an army: infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots. Over time they became the pawns, knights, bishops and rooks we know today.
Snakes and ladders
The original, Moksha Patam, was a teaching game. Ladders stood for virtues and snakes for vices, so landing on a ladder meant you had done something good. Victorian Britain exported a toned-down version to the world
Ludo
Ludo descends from Pachisi, played on a cross-shaped cloth board. Legend says the Mughal emperor Akbar played it at Fatehpur Sikri using living people as pieces. A simplified version was patented in England in the late 1800s.
Shampoo
The word comes from the Hindi champo, meaning to press or massage. British traders picked up the habit of head massage with oils and herbs, and in the 1820s Sake Dean Mahomed, an Indian-born entrepreneur, opened a famous “shampooing” bath in Brighton.
Wootz steel
Crucible steel made in southern India was prized across the ancient world for its strength. It is widely linked to the legendary patterned blades later known as Damascus steel.
Surgery
The Sushruta Samhita, a Sanskrit medical text attributed to Sushruta, describes surgical instruments and procedures, including nasal reconstruction and cataract treatment. It is often called a foundation of surgical writing.
Great ideas rarely stay in one place. They travel, get renamed and become part of everyone’s life.
Which one surprised you most? Tell us in the comments, and share this with the friend who always wins at chess.
