Professor Whitney opines,“ We regard the Hindu's science as an offshoot from the Greek, planted not far from the commencement of christian era, and attaining its fully developed form in course of fifth and sixth century."
These sanskrit scholars do know what our scriptures have in them, but they revolve around their own created omphalo of imparting ignorance to the world either probably to keep up contentment with the antiquity of Christianity imperiously, or they are truly ignorant.
RV VIII Fifth aṣṭaka says
उदियाय ततो अगस्त्य: शम्यामात्रो महितपःमानेन सम्मितो यस्माद् मान्य इहोच्यते॥Thence rose the great ascetic Agastya of the measure of a span, as measure by measure, (māna) he is then called upon mānya।
Other such examples come from RV VII.33.13, for Mānya from RV I.165.15,177.5,184.4 etc. Agastya Muni, Kuru Muni, i.e., Dwarf Muni is also known as Māna
मानः (पुं) [मन + घञ]मानं (नपु)- मापना, माप दण्ड, मान दण्डमानदण्ड(पु)- मापने का डण्डा, गज- स्थितः
‘पृथिव्या इव मानदण्ड:’
Striking use of unit of measure-yardstick in Kumārsambhava by Kalidās in a mangalācharanam; i.e, beginning of first shloka, brought in the word ‘mānadaṇḍa’ as yard stick incessantly. For a moment I thought if it has anything to do with Agastya-Māna; anumāna was made.
अस्त्युत्तरस्यां दिशि देवतात्मा हिमालयो नाम नगाधिराज:।पूर्वापरौ तोयनिधी वगाह्य स्थित: पृथिव्या इव मानदण्ड:।।
Though I rubbish the PIE root system which is nothing but deformed form of sanskrit root, still has gathered a momentum due to a creation of database of other languages as well. The process of PIE is very contemporary which can always be solved with the help of Sanskrit root system if verb fallen prey. I searched PIE root for ‘meter’ and to my astonishment found ‘me’. Greek metron (measure) influenced english meter “person who measure”[ late 14c], agent noun 'mete'.
I deliberated to understand measurement techniques from antiquity, way back from vedic times. How much did we know about the measurement?
We find
अङ्गुष्ठमात्रक aṅguṣṭhamātraka ; having the length or size of a thumbअङ्गुल aṅgula ; twelve angula making a vitasti or spanअङ्गुलमान aṅgulamāna ; measure of length of an angulaव्यङ्गुल vyaṅgula; having the length of an angulaवितस्ति vitasti ; span or having a measure of length
अवत्नि avatni ; primarily means ‘elbow’ occurs frequently in RV VIII,80 denoting as a measure of length, the distance from elbow till tip of the hand. etc. Therefore, we had enough of measurement techniques.
We find unit of measure for length in Akbar and post Akbar period as-‘Gaz' mainly which would have had come from ‘gaja' sthita~goad, yard~length, typically like Kerala thotti (hook), which is 3.5 feet in length and about 1 inch thick; the valya mol(long pole), which is 10.5 feet in length and about 1 inch thick.
1 yard = 0.91444m is almost equivalent to gaz
Length: Ilahi Gaz (33" to 34"); 1 Gaz = 16 Grehs; 1 Greh = 2 pais
At the time of Shah Jahan there existed three different Gaz:
a) Shahi gaz = 101.6 cm; b) Shahijahani or Lashkari = 95.85 cm; c) Aleppo gaz = 67.73 cm
Usually, dwarf people have typical heights ranging from 2'8" to 4'8." It is possible that Agastya muni himself had been hardly of 3 feet height.
For Rgvedic Māna~Mānya it can be said that Agastya muni was the first man who gave his height as a unit of measure for length.
Offering philological evidence, which can be construed either way, will only weaken your argument rather than buttress it. There is ample archaeological evidence IVC inhabitants were using graduated scales already, 2000 years before Christ. A few archaeological artifacts attest to the fact. The earliest learned greeks were the late bronze age mycenaens. By that time, IVC had collapsed but not before passing some of their knowledge to later generation. One of which were probably the Minions of Crete, who in turn passed in onto Mycenaens, then to Hellenistic Greeks, then onto Palestenian/arabs and thence to the world.
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