Ancient Indian thinkers had arrived at an elaborate system of ideas on motion.

Force, the cause of motion, was thought to be of different kinds : force due to continuous pressure (nodan) , aa the forces of wind on a sailing vessel; impact (abhighat), as when a potter’s rod strikes the wheel; persistent tendency (sanskara) to move in a straight line(vega) or restoration of shape in an elastic body; transmitted force by a string,rod,ect.

The notion of (vega) in the vaisesika theory of motion perhaps come closest to the concept of inertia.

vega, the tendency to move in a straight line, was thought to be opposed by contact with objects including atmosphere,a parallel to the ideas of friction and air resistance.

lt was correctly summarised that the different kind of motion (translation, rotational and vibrational) of an extended body arise from only the translational motion of its constituent particles.

A falling leaf in the wind may have downward motion as a whole (patan) and also rotational and vibrational motion (bhraman,spandam),but each particle of the leaf at an instant only has a definite (small) displacement.

There was considerable focus in Indian thought on measurement of motion and units of length and time.

It was known that the position of a particle in space can be indicated by distance measured along three axes.

Bhaskara(1150A.D) had introduced the concept of ‘instantaneous motion’ (tatkaliki gati), which anticipated the modern notion of instantaneous velocity using Differential calculus.

The difference between a wave and a current (of water) was clearly understood; a current is a motion of particles of water under gravity and fluidity while a wave results from the transmission of vibrations of water particles.