Greek and Indian Cosmology: Review of Early History

TL;DR

This paper reviews early Greek and Indian cosmologies, highlighting their independent development, differences in scientific focus and worldview, and minimal influence on each other's scientific methods, especially in astronomy and medicine.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of Greek and Indian cosmologies, emphasizing their independent evolution and contrasting scientific approaches and worldviews.

Findings

Greek and Indian cosmologies developed independently.

Medicine was similarly practiced in both traditions.

Differences in astronomical models and scales were significant.

Abstract

The early Greek and Indian cosmologies are summarized in this paper. The two traditions appear to have developed independently although after the time of Alexander they were consciously aware of each other. The focus and style of the two sciences was different owing to their different cosmologies. Perhaps the only science which worked more or less the same way in the two civilizations was medicine. But even here there was important difference. The reason why the two sciences went their own way in spite of the knowledge of the other was because their worldviews were different. Indian astronomers, for example, never paid any attention to Ptolemy's model with its crystalline spheres that looked restrictive compared to the vast scale of their own conception. On the other hand, the use of enormous time scales of Indian astronomy must have appeared unnecessary to the Greeks.