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Abstract
The paper attempts to review the contribution of ‘yoga’ towards understanding some of the basic
concepts of health. Yoga has been widely acknowledged as the Indian contribution to the world
towards maintaining and upgrading mental & physical health, wellbeing and peace. However, it
is somewhat less known that Yogic exercises and postures have also made significant
contribution towards some of the fundamental concepts in mathematical and biological sciences.
For instance, derivations of sine, cosine and tangent were related to ‘Danurasana’. Similarly,
concepts of oxidation, carbonation and calcification emanated from ‘Anulom Vilom Asna’.
Modern concepts of latitude and longitudes on which global navigation grid and location finding
systems are based were derived from ‘Surya Namaskar’ (sun salutation). Asanas (postures) like
Ardhchakrasana, Sarpasana, Ardhkapotasana, Ustrasana have led to the recognition of concepts
like chord, measuring dimensions of a spherical body, reflection radiation etc. Early explorers
and yogis devised these systems for calculations and arriving at accurate results. The earliest
known Indian treatise containing references of these is Surya Siddhanta. Techniques of breath
control (prānāyāma)is an important contribution in this regard.