Why did ISC wait 100 years to discuss ancient science: Bhatkar

Emphasising the importance of ancient Indian science, noted computer scientist Vijay Bhatkar today asked why it took 100 years for the Indian Science Congress to discuss the issue.

"We observe that it is for the very first time in 102 years at the Indian Science Congress, that we have discussed ancient science. Why did it take 100 years for us to do so," Bhatkar said while addressing a symposium on "Ancient Indian sciences through Sanskrit", at the 102nd Indian Science Congress, underway here.

"Why did it take 100 years to realise that this is a very important issue of science," Bhatkar, who is architect of the PARAM series of supercomputers, said.

"The first question to be addressed is, why should we study, research, investigate ancient Indian sciences. This should have been an integral part of every (Indian Science) Congress," he said.

"Today, the big question is, whether the human race will survive or not," he said.
"Google is a search engine. It is pure maths and algorithms. Today, when I ask a question in English, my computer, server, clouds must understand it and reply in natural language. This is a frontier," he said.

"If this really has to be solved precisely and correctly, I believe, you will have to go to Sanskrit as a language. We want great computer scientists to study Sanskrit," Bhatkar said.