Oldest books of different streams with authors name.

     Some oldest books of different authors and their        specialization 

Books are one of the main and important sources of information from ancient time to modern time. It is one of the biggest inventions of mankind. Origin of books came with the development of writing. During initial period writing were used to be done on rocks, metal plates, bark of trees, and other hard surfaces. Etruscan Gold book is considered as the most ancient book.

We got to know about history from the books written by different authors in variant specialization at different period of time. So let’s go through the oldest books of 10 streams with information like author, period, area of concern and many more.

A.    Religious book:  “Rig Veda” is the oldest of all religious books. It is one of the four Vedas (religious text) of Hinduism. It is collection of 10 mandals (books) consisting 1,028 hymns in about 10,600 verses. Rig veda along with other Vedas was compiled by Rishi Ved Vayasa.  It deals with the origin of universe and the nature of the god. It is likely to be composed in between 1500 BC to 1200 BC. Rigveda was written on leaves, papers, birch bark, stones and metals like gold, silver etc. It is written in many Indian scripts like Devanagri( RAJASTHAN, MAHARASHTRA, UTTAR PRADESH,NEPAL). It is also dedicated to various dieties like Indra(god of rain), Agni(god of fire), Aditya(god of asuras), Vishnu, Savitr, Rudra, Pushan, Brihaspati, Prithvi(land, earth, mother earth),Vayu(air), Apas(the water), parjanya( the thander of rain),Vac (the word). 

B.    Science book:  In 1543, Andreas Vesalius wrote the first book on science “De humani corporis fabrica”. This book deals with working of Human body. He was a Flemish anatomist, Physician, and author. This book is a collection of books on anatomy. This book is considered as the major advance in the in the history of anatomy. There are 7 books in total. Book 1 deal with “the bones and cartilages”. Book 2 deals with “the ligaments and muscles”. Book 3 dealt with “the veins and arteries, Book 4 with “the nerves”, Book 5 with “the organs of nutrition and generation”, Book 6 with “the heart and associated organs”. And the last book deals with “the brain”.

C.     Sex book: “kamasutra” is the first book written on Sex. It is an ancient Sanskrit text deals with the sexuality, eroticism and emotional fulfillment in life. Basically it is not completely on sex but deals with the happy well being between couples. Mallanaga Vatsyayana is the author this book. This text is believed to written in between of 2^nd and 3^rd century.

D.    History book: The Greek historian “Herodotus” is considered as the first historian of the world. He wrote only one book “The Histories”. This book is believed to be the oldest of the world. This book was written around the period of 430 BC. It describes the events and happenings during the Graeco-Persian wars/ Greek-Iranian wars.

E.     Geography books: from ancient period, many books and author tried to describe about the geography. Thinkers from Greece, China, India, etc. tried to describe formation of world by their own theories. But many historians believed that the first book completely written on geography was “Geographia”. This book was written by “Eratosthenes”. He was the first who tried to calculate the length of equator and to calculate the circumference of the earth.

F.     Political science book: the first political book was written by an Indian philosopher “Manu”. And the name of the book is “Manusmiriti”. Also many considered “Sumathi Bhargava” as the author of Manusmriti. This book dealt with the Indian law. Initial author assigned the period 1250 BC and 1000 BC. But later scholars shifted the chronology to between 200 BC and 200 CE.

G.    Novel: “Don Quixote” is might be considered as the world’s first novel. This novel was written by Miguel de Cervantes in time period of 1605 to 1615. This novel contains two parts. First part contains 52 chapters which is the complete novel. Second part didn’t publish with the first part. It was added after 10 years which explores the concept of a character understanding that he is written about.

H.    Dictionary: many people believe that dictionary is a modern invention. But the oldest dictionary is dated back around 2300 BCE. It was Akkadian Empire in which cuneiform tablets with bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian wordlist were discovered from Ebla (modern Syria).

I.       Mathematics book: “Baudhayana Sulba Sutra” is the oldest known text of mathematics dated back around 800 and 400 BCE. It contained many important algebraic equations, geometry, quadratic equation etc. Pythagoras triplet is also mentioned in this book. Nevertheless, the theorem came to be credited to Pythagoras.

J.       Economy book: kautilya “Arthshastra” is believed to be the first book in which taxation system have been introduced for the first time. Although this book mainly focused on polity, law and order in the country. It also has information about economy development of a state. Those who reject claims that Sir James Steuart (a Scottish mercantilist) book “Political Economy” as the oldest economy book. In this book he published an inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy. Also some believes that Adams smith’s book “The Wealth of Nations” in 1776 is the formalization of economic thought.