Hinduism and the Total Number of Species

or Life Forms on Planet Earth

8.4 millionBhagavadgitaevollutionhinduismPadma PuranaSpecies
Modern biologists today can list and name around 1.3 million species of life forms on planet
earth. But modern biologists also agree that this number is a significant underestimate of the
actual total number of species on this planet, so millions of species and life forms are yet to be
identified, named, listed and studied. Even today every year around 15,000 new species and life
forms are discovered which keeps adding to the number of known species mentioned above. For
centuries Taxonomists around the world have been trying to get an approximate definitive figure
about the total number of species on Earth and to list them all. Now let us see what the ancient
Hindu scriptures have to say about the total number of species on planet Earth.
Ancient Hindu Texts on Total Number of Life Forms
Bhagavadgita 5000 year old text
The ancient Hindu text Bhagavadgita which which is atleast 5000 years old and dates back to the
times of Mahabharatha says in (2.22) that just as one gives up an old shirt to put on a new one,
the soul gives up an old body to acquire a new kind of a body (vasmsi jirnni yath vihya).
And that a soul can be born as any of the 8.4 million species on this planet one of which is
humans, the greatest of all life forms. Since being born as a human is such a rare opportunity,
one should make complete use of this human life, and devout ones lifetime to do good things,
earn knowledge, help others, serve the society and try to attain moksha (salvation).
What is quite obviously hidden in this message is a statement which says that there are 8.4
million different life forms on this planet!
Padma Purana 5000 year old text
Another ancient Hindu text Padma Purana which is also a contemporary of Bhagavadgita not
only says that there are 8.4 million different species on Earth, but also goes a step ahead and
categorizes or classifies them as follows.
Jalaja (Water based life forms) 0.9 million
Sthavara (Immobile implying plants and trees) 2.0 million
Krimayo (Reptiles) 1.1 million
Pakshinam (Birds) 1.0 million
Pashavah (terrestrial animals) 3.0 million
Manavah (human-like animals) 0.4 million
8.4 million life forms in all! The actual Sanskrit verse from the Padma Purana explaining the
above numbers is as follows
jalaja nava lakshani, sthavara laksha-vimshati, krimayo rudra-sankhyakah, pakshinam dasha-
lakshanam, trinshal-lakshani pashavah, chatur lakshani manavah
In other words these 5000 year old texts are not only suggesting that there are 8.4 million
species or 8.4 million different life forms on earth, but have also categorized them!

Total Number of Life Forms estimated by Modern
Science
As late as Aug 2011, a detailed study estimated (not discovered them all, but only calculated
using a detailed mathematical analysis) the total number of species on planet earth to be around
8.7 million, plus or minus 1.3 million. Read this article on The New York Times, How Many
Species? A Study Says 8.7 Million, but Its Tricky. What this means is that around 7 million
species or life forms are yet to be discovered and cataloged! Also please note that it doesnt
have to be exactly 8.4 million species even today, because biodiversity on earth has changed in
the past few thousand years with climate change, mass extinction, etc. Irrespective of whether
the final number ends up near 8.4 million or not, this gives us a lot of insight into the scientific
and analytic capabilities of our ancestors and proves that the ancients were as equally scientific
tempered as the scientists of our age. Please note that the numbers quoted above are from texts
which are atleast 5000 years old, a period which modern science says belongs to Stone Age !?
Look at the striking resemblance of the number 8.4 million life forms mentioned in the ancient
Hindu scriptures, and the new number 8.7 million, plus or minus 1.3 million arrived at using
modern scientific analysis and decide for yourself. Be careful the next time you chose to ignore a
number or a statement in an ancient text as myth or irrelevant.
Remember these lines from the 500 year old kannada dasara pada?
which means that our human body evolved
out of 8.4 million species.
Who said there is no science in spirituality, and who said that the ancients knew no science.
They knew better than us, aint it?