While the Greeks are often credited with early scientific advances and map-making, ancient India had achieved many discoveries centuries earlier. The Mahabharata even contains a detailed description of the Earth’s appearance, so precise that Indian saint Ramanujacharya later translated the verse and sketched what is claimed to be the first world map.

In the epic, Maharishi Ved Vyasa grants Sanjaya divine vision so he can describe events to King Dhritarashtra; before the war, Dhritarashtra asks how the world looks from above. The Mahabharata describes the Earth’s reflection on the moon, noting features likened to fig leaves and a giant rabbit, with land masses rich in medicinal plants and the rest covered by water.