Agastya Muni- Agastya Samhita – how he made electricity?
To dig the science behind myth is always very thrilling. Science is not a recent term but it dated back to the ages of Devas and Rishis. When the whole world was struggling with ignorance, our ancestors developed electricity. The process is described in the Agastya Samhita. This process has been used by modern science to produce electricity. However, this remains as a forgotten chapter of the history. So let’s reopen it:
History: Agastya Rishi was the rebirth of Vaisistha Rishi. Once the great sage was requested by great king Nimi who was the descendant of the Suryavanshi Isshwaku to perform a yagna for him. However, the sage had already promised Indra for a yagna on the same day so he told the king that he would return after performing the Yagna of Indra. The king meanwhile completed the Yagna by Sage Sathanand. When Sage Vaisistha came back, the king was asleep and could not receive him. Enraged the sage cursed him to die. When King Nimi heard he decided to revert back and in turn cursed the sage to die as well. King Nimi died soon. However, Rishi Vaisistha was immortal by his piousness and Siddhis. He still willingly left his body and went up as a divine flame to Brahma Dev. Brahma knew everything and told him that he must return to earth for completing his needed works. He needs to take a new body and Mithra and Varun helped him in this. With the blessings of Brahma two Rishis were born. The first was great Sage Agastya and younger was Sage Vaisistha who had complete knowledge about the Vedas. However, Sage Agastya did not have to learn anything. He was an expertise in all areas including weapons from his birth. He was the guru of Agnivesha who was the tutor of Dronacharya. Such was the extent of the great sage.
Agastya Samhita: Sage Agastya created electricity based on the natural resources and compiled it in his book. He up the concept of creating clean energy producing electricity. Even the modern battery cells use exactly the same method of creating electricity. In the Samhita it’s mentioned that Sage Agastya used one earthen pot, a copper plate, copper sulphate, wet saw dust and Zinc amalgam for creating electricity. Here wet saw dust was used as a separator. According to the Hindu beliefs the scripture was written ten thousand years back. However, in terms of Western beliefs, it dates back to 15000BCE. If you take a closer look into the Rasayan scripts of the Samhita, then you can easily find that modern technology took theories from this book to generate electricity. Rishi Agastya is considered as the father of ancient science. He was a great pioneer in medicine too. He also highlighted the need of chemical compounds to benefit the humankind. Rishi Agastya was himself born from the solar energy of the sun. The rapid technological advancements during that age fostered the ancient civilizations to use solar energy without harming nature. According to Agastya Samhita, electricity is present in the human body and also in all resources of the earth. To know this more clearly we must see how Sage Agastya made electricity.
Creation of electricity in Agastya Samhita: According to the process described in the Agastya Samhita, electricity can be made by placing a copper sheet on an earthen pot and putting sikhigreeva in it. Then it needs to be smeared with wet saw dust and Zinc. Then if the wires are joined it will create electricity. Sikhigreeva in Sanskrit means the neck of a peacock. However, here it is used as a metaphor. In terms of science, it means a substance of the colour of a peacock that is Copper Sulphate. This experiment was carried out by Mr. Hole and it generated an electricity of 1.38 volts and short circuit current of 23 mili amperes. It’s further mentioned in the Agastya Samhita that if hundred earthen pots are used in water, the form of water would be changed to life giving floating hydrogen and oxygen. He even gave the sutra of an aerodynamic battery. He mentions that if hydrogen is contained in an air tight cloth, it will fly. This suggests that ancient India was already aware of the flying aeroplanes technology. According to Rao Saheb Vaje who spent his whole life researching on ancient science remarked that in those ages electricity was created by different means. Some of these are:
Tradit: Silken cloth creates lightening by friction.
Saudamini: Electricity is generated by friction of gems and glasses.
Vidut: Electricity is made by clouds or steam.
Shaktkoti or Shaktkumbhi: 100 cells or pots generate electricity.
Hridani: A storage cell for travel. It is stored or assimilated electricity.
Ashani: Electricity created by emanating from magnetic bar.
The Samhita also gives an account of how electricity can be used for electroplating. Even ways to polish gold, silver and copper with a battery was discovered by him when the west was residing in caves. Due to these facts, he is often called ‘Battery Born’. This is just a overview of the Agastya Samhita. A deep study of this book can surprise you every moment. Such was the extent of science. To understand this more clearly let’s see how modern science makes electricity.
Modern electricity: In recent times for generating electricity, a resilient plastic container like the Agastya pot is used to place the materials. Agastya copper plates is replaced by lead which is used for creating positive and negative internal plates. These plates need to be separated while making connections at the same time. The separators are made of porous synthetic material similar to the Agastya Samhita raw dust. Then a dilute solution of sulphuric acid and water is used to establish connection with an electrolyte similar to Zinc amalgam sulphate mentioned in the Samhita. So undoubtedly we have a very glorious and advanced past worth to be proud of.
In the temple of Trivandrum, Travancore, a big lit lamp was found over hundred and twenty years ago. It was placed inside a deep well in the temple. Well this is only possible due to the excellent scientific progress of the Agastya Samhita. The text giving knowledge about creation of electric batteries, this is surely not an exception. Keep following us for more. We will come back shortly. Until then stay happy and never stop craving for knowledge.