This list of Indian inventions and discoveries details the inventions, scientific discoveries and contributions of India, including those from the historic Indian subcontinent and the modern-day Republic of India. It draws from the whole cultural and technological of India|cartography, metallurgy, logic, mathematics, metrology and mineralogy were among the branches of study pursued by its scholars. During recent times science and technology in the Republic of India has also focused on automobile engineering, information technology, communications as well as research into space and polar technology.
For the purpose of this list, the inventions are regarded as technological firsts developed within the territory of India. As such, this list does not include foreign technologies which India acquired through contact, any breakthroughs in a foreign land by a person of Indian origin living in a foreign country, a new idea, indigenous alternatives, low-cost alternatives, or technologies or discoveries developed elsewhere and later invented separately in India, nor inventions by Indian emigres or the Indian diaspora in other places. Changes in minor concepts of design or style and artistic innovations do not appear in the lists.
Ancient India
Arts Martial arts Kalaripayattu – One of the world's oldest form of martial arts is Kalaripayattu that developed in the southwest state of Kerala in India. Vajra-mushti – refers to a wrestling where knuckleduster like weapon is employed.The first literary mention of vajra-musti comes from the Manasollasa of the Chalukya king Someswara III (1124–1138), although it has been conjectured to have existed since as early as the Maurya dynasty
Agriculture Indigo dye – Indigo, a blue pigment and a dye, was used in India, which was also the earliest major, old world, centre for its production and processing.Kriger & Connah (2006), page 120 The Indigofera tinctoria variety of Indigo was domesticated in India. Indigo, used as a dye, made its way to the Greeks and the Romans via various trade routes, and was valued as a luxury product. Jute cultivation – Jute has been cultivated in India since ancient times. Raw jute was exported to the western world, where it was used to make ropes and cordage.Encyclopædia Britannica (2008). jute. The Indian jute industry, in turn, was modernised during the British Raj in India. The region of Bengal was the major centre for Jute cultivation, and remained so before the modernisation of India's jute industry in 1855, when Kolkata became a centre for jute processing in India. Sugar – Sugarcane was originally from tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia, with different species originating in India, and S. edule and S. officinarum from New Guinea. The process of producing crystallised sugar from sugar cane, in India, dates to at least the beginning of the common era, with 1st century CE Greek and Roman authors writing on Indian sugar.Book Two of Dioscorides' Materia Medica. The book is downloadable from links at the Wikipedia Dioscorides page. The process was soon transmitted to China with travelling Buddhist monks.Kieschnick (2003) Chinese documents confirm at least two missions to India, initiated in 647 CE, for obtaining technology for sugar-refining.Kieschnick (2003), page 258 Each mission returned with results on refining sugar.
Construction, civil engineering and architecture
Stepwell – While the early history of stepwells is poorly understood, water structures in Western India were their likely predecessor.Livingston & Beach, 19 The three features of stepwells in the subcontinent are evident from one particular site, abandoned by 2500 BCE, which combines a bathing pool, steps leading down to water, and figures of some religious importance into one structure. Stupa – The origin of the stupa can be traced to 3rd-century BCE India.Encyclopædia Britannica (2008). Pagoda. It was used as a commemorative monument associated with storing sacred relics. The stupa architecture was adopted in Southeast and East Asia, where it evolved into the pagoda, a Buddhist monument used for enshrining sacred relics. Residential University – Nalanda (, ) was a renowned mahavihara (Buddhist monastic university) in ancient Magadha (modern-day Bihar), eastern India. Considered by historians to be the world's first residential university and among the greatest centres of learning in the ancient world, it was located near the city of Rajagriha (now Rajgir) and about southeast of Pataliputra (now Patna) and operated from 427 until 1197 CE.
Finance and banking Cheque/Check – There is early evidence of using cheques/checks. In India, during the Maurya Empire (from 321 to 185 BC), a commercial instrument called the "Adesha" was in use, which was an order on a banker desiring him to pay the money of the note to a third person (now known as or referred to as a "Negotiable Instrument").
Games
Atya-patya – This variation of tag was being played as early as 100 CE, and was possibly invented by farmers as a way of practicing driving away birds. It was later used as a form of military training in Kerala in close relation to the martial art of kalaripayattu. Blindfold chess – Games prohibited by Buddha includes a variant of ashtapada game played on imaginary boards. Akasam astapadam was an ashtapada variant played with no board, literally "astapadam played in the sky". A correspondent in the American Chess Bulletin identifies this as likely the earliest literary mention of a blindfold chess variant. Carrom – The game of carrom originated in India.History of Physical Education, p.209, SR Tiwari, APH Publishing One carrom board with its surface made of glass is still available in one of the palaces in Patiala, India. It became very popular among the masses after World War I. State-level competitions were being held in the different states of India during the early part of the twentieth century. Serious carrom tournaments may have begun in Sri Lanka in 1935 but by 1958, both India and Sri Lanka had formed official federations of carrom clubs, sponsoring tournaments and awarding prizes. Chaturanga – The precursor of chess originated in India during the Gupta dynasty (c. 280550 CE).Murray (1913)Forbes (1860)Jones, William (1807). "On the Indian Game of Chess". pages 323333Linde, Antonius (1981) Both the Persians and Arabs ascribe the origins of the game of Chess to the Indians.Wilkinson, Charles K (May 1943)Bird (1893), page 63 The words for "chess" in Old Persian and Arabic are chatrang and shatranj respectively – terms derived from caturaṅga in Sanskrit,Hooper & Whyld (1992), page 74Sapra, Rahul (2000). "Sports in India". Students' Britannica India (Vol. 6). Mumbai: Popular Prakashan. p. 106. . which literally means an army of four divisions or four corps.Meri (2005), page 148Basham (2001), page 208 Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape.Encyclopædia Britannica (2002). Chess: Ancient precursors and related games. This game was introduced to the Near East from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education of Persian nobility. Buddhist pilgrims, Silk Road traders and others carried it to the Far East where it was transformed and assimilated into a game often played on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares. Chaturanga reached Europe through Persia, the Byzantine empire and the expanding Arabian empire.Encyclopædia Britannica (2007). Chess: Introduction to Europe. Muslims carried Shatranj to North Africa, Sicily, and Spain by the 10th century where it took its final modern form of chess. Gillidanda- It is a game where players attempt to hit a stick as far as possible to score points. It has similarities to the traditional games around the world, such as tipcat. Kabaddi – The game of kabaddi originated in India during prehistory.Alter, page 88 Suggestions on how it evolved into the modern form range from wrestling exercises, military drills, and collective self-defence but most authorities agree that the game existed in some form or the other in India during the period between 1500 and 400 BCE. Kho-kho – This is one of the oldest variations of tag in the world, having been played since as early as the fourth century BCE. Ludo – Pachisi originated in India by the 6th century.MSN Encarta (2008). Pachisi. The earliest evidence of this game in India is the depiction of boards on the caves of Ajanta. A variant of this game, called Ludo, made its way to England during the British Raj. Mallakhamba – It is a traditional sport, originating from the Indian subcontinent, in which a gymnast performs aerial yoga or gymnastic postures and wrestling grips in concert with a vertical stationary or hanging wooden pole, cane, or rope.The earliest literary known mention of Mallakhamb is in the 1135 CE Sanskrit classic Manasollasa, written by Someshvara III. It has been thought to be the ancestor of Pole Dancing. Nuntaa, also known as Kutkute. Seven stones – An Indian subcontinent game also called Pitthu is played in rural areas has its origins in the Indus Valley Civilization. Snakes and ladders – Vaikunta pali Snakes and ladders originated in India as a game based on morality.Augustyn, pages 2728 During British rule of India, this game made its way to England, and was eventually introduced in the United States of America by game-pioneer Milton Bradley in 1943. Suits game: Kridapatram is an early suits game, made of painted rags, invented in Ancient India. The term kridapatram literally means "painted rags for playing." Paper playing cards first appeared in East Asia during the 9th century. The medieval Indian game of ganjifa, or playing cards, is first recorded in the 16th century.
Textile and material production Button – Ornamental buttons—made from seashell—were used in the Indus Valley civilization for ornamental purposes by 2000 BCE.Hesse, Rayner W. & Hesse, Rayner W. Jr. (2007). Jewelrymaking Through History: An Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group. 35. . Some buttons were carved into geometric shapes and had holes pierced into them so that they could be attached to clothing by using a thread. Ian McNeil (1990) holds that: "The button, in fact, was originally used more as an ornament than as a fastening, the earliest known being found at Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley. It is made of a curved shell and about 5000 years old."McNeil, Ian (1990). An encyclopaedia of the history of technology. Taylor & Francis. 852. .
Calico – Calico had originated in the subcontinent by the 11th century and found mention in Indian literature, by the 12th-century writer Hemachandra. He has mentioned calico fabric prints done in a lotus design.Encyclopædia Britannica (2008). calico The Indian textile merchants traded in calico with the Africans by the 15th century and calico fabrics from Gujarat appeared in Egypt. Trade with Europe followed from the 17th century onward. Within India, calico originated in Kozhikode. Carding devices – Historian of science Joseph Needham ascribes the invention of bow-instruments used in textile technology to India. The earliest evidence for using bow-instruments for carding comes from India (2nd century CE). These carding devices, called kaman and dhunaki would loosen the texture of the fibre by the means of a vibrating string. Cashmere – The fibre cashmere fibre also known as pashm or pashmina for its use in the handmade shawls of Kashmir, India.Encyclopædia Britannica (2008). cashmere. The woolen shawls made from wool in Indian administered Kashmir find written mention between the 3rd century BCE and the 11th century CE.Encyclopædia Britannica (2008). kashmir shawl. Charkha (Spinning wheel): invented in India, between 500 and 1000 CE.