Knowledge Representation in Sanskrit and Artificial Intelligence

"Knowledge Representation in Sanskrit and Artificial Intelligence" , a paper published in AI Magazine by Rick Briggs, RIACS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, California in Spring 1985.
The abstract of this paper is reproduced here below:
In the past twenty years, much time, effort, and money has been expended on designing an unambiguous representation of natural languages to make them accessible to computer processing. These efforts have centered around creating schemata designed to parallel logical relations with relations expressed by the syntax and semantics of natural languages, which are clearly cumbersome and ambiguous in their function as vehicles for the transmission of logical data. Understandably, there is a widespread belief that natural languages are unsuitable for the transmission of many ideas that artificial languages can render with great precision and mathematical rigor.
But this dichotomy, which has served as a premise underlying much work in the areas of linguistics and aritifical intelligence, is a false one. There is at least one language, Sanskrit, which for the duration of almost 1000 years was a living spoken language with a considerable literature of its own. Besides works of literary value, there was a long philosophical and grammatical tradition that has continued to exist with undiminished vigor until the present century. Among the accomplishments of the grammarians can be reckoned a method for paraphrasing Sanskrit in a manner that is identical not only in essence but in form with current work in AI. This article demonstrates that a natural language can serve as an artificial language also, and that much work in AI has been reinventing a wheel millenia old.
First, a typical Knowledge Representation Scheme(using Semantic Nets) will be laid out, followed by an outline of the method used by the ancient Indian Grammarians to analyze sentences unambiguously. Finally, the clear parallelism between the two will be demonstrated, and the theoritical implications of this equivalence will be given.

Binary Numbers in Indian Antiquity

Binary numbers form the basis for the operation of computers. Binary numbers were discovered in the west by German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz in 1695. However, new evidence proves that binary numbers were used in India prior to 2nd century A.D., more than 1500 years before their discovery in the west.

Ancient India had a tradition of scholarly learning. This tradition continued till the beginning of current millennium. During the millennium long foreign rule hostile to scholarly activities, a vast body of scientific information was lost. Thankfully some of the ancient literature has survived. Most of the scholarly work needed to preserve the ancient learning was done in South India which remained free from invasion for a significant time. Scholars are now rediscovering the forgotten contributions of ancient India in the field of mathematics and science. One of these discoveries is that of the use of Binary numbers for the classification of meters.

This is a paper published by B. Van Nooten, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkely, California. Here the author shows that Binary numbers were existed in Indian Antiquity around 5th Century B.C.. He discusses the evidences from Pingalacharya's Chandahsastra, which is a science of verse meters. The author discusses the classification of meters, finding the decimal equivalent of a metrical pattern, finding the binary equivalent of a decimal number, its historical importance and also compares Europe and India about its discovery of the decimal numbers. This paper can be found in the book ttitled "Computing Science in Ancient India edited by T.R.N. Rao and Subhash Kak".