Ancient Indian texts speak of great advancements in science.

Ancient texts have

been found that describe flying machines (vimana), “Pushpaka vimana”, a flying
machine is used by ravana to abduct sita in Ramayana. Similarly the Vedas
supposedly describe the nuclear power. When the first ever Nuclear bomb was
tested in 1946, Oppenheimer; the man behind it,exclaimed,”Kotisoorya
samaprabha.....” (The light of a thousand suns) in Sanskrit quoting from the
Vedas !

● But then what happened to all this knowledge ?

● Where did it all go ?
● Why were we so helpless that we couldn't even defend ourselves from the
Muslim invasions?

Ashoka (270.BCE) was one of the greatest Indian Emperors, he wanted to be the
only ruler of India. He continued the legacy of his great grandfather
Chandragupta Maurya. He went on conquering many parts of India to bring them
under his rule. It was a cakewalk for him until he tried to conquer Kalinga (The
present day Orrissa). The people of Kalinga resisted this invasion, they fought a
valiant battle to defend their land , they could not be intimidated by the huge
armies of Ashoka. Finally Ashoka won the battle which cost the lives of 1,00,000
men !

The scenes of death and destruction moved Ashoka so much that he decided to
never wage a battle again. He got himself converted into the religion of Buddha.

At the same time, he decided that all the weapons of war and all knowledge that
can cause destruction should be hidden from the view of the people. [I guess only
a few people could read at that time and fewer still had the complete knowledge
of science and hence it was easy to conceal information]

He created a secret society called “The Nine Unknown” , a group of nine people
who would have access to all knowledge and also develop it but would ensure
that it did not get into the wrong hands. “The Nine Unknown” is one of the oldest
secret societies in existence as we know and their aim was “to preserve and
develop knowledge that would be dangerous to humanity if it fell into the wrong
hands”. The nine people were supposedly well versed in 9 fields, the fields are as
follows :-

1. Propaganda and Psychological warfare.

2. Physiology, including instructions on how to perform the "touch of death." One account
has Judo being a product of material leaked from this book.
3. Microbiology, and, according to more recent speculation, Biotechnology. In some versions
of the myth, the waters of the Ganges are purified with special microbes designed by the
Nine and released into the river at a secret base in the Himalayas.
 4. Alchemy, including the transmutation of metals. In India, there is a persistent rumor that
during times of drought or other natural disasters temples and religious organizations
receive large quantities of gold from an unknown source. The mystery is further deepened
with the fact that the sheer quantity of gold throughout the country in temples and with
kings cannot be properly accounted for, seeing that India has only ever had one gold mine.
5. Communication with extraterrestrials.
6. Gravitation. Book 6 is said to contain the instructions necessary to build a Vimana,
sometimes referred to as the "ancient UFOs of India."
7. Cosmology
8. Light
9. Sociology, including rules concerning the evolution of societies and how to predict their
downfall.

Each of The Nine Unknown supposedly have a book each; which contains
complete information on the field assigned to them.

J.C.Bose, and Vikram Sarabhai, the man behind the Indian space and missile
defense programs are speculated to have been members of the Nine but the
society is so secretive that no on even knows if it exists at all.

The Nine are also supposedly responsible for the creation of the Cholera vaccine,
when the scientist from Germany came to India he is supposed to have been
given instructions by the Nine Unknown on how to make the vaccine and he did
it. They did this because among the priorities assigned to them,they were to look
after the well-being of the world.

So, what this means is that ancient India did have an advanced science which
was curtailed and put under wraps by Ashoka after seeing the bloodshed it could
produce. The job of developing and knowing the science was given to 9 people
who were to add to the knowledge but would not let it go into the wrong hands.
This explains why we haven't seen any mass-destructive offensive or defensive
equipment by our ancestors for at least the past 2000years which left us open for
attacks by the barbarians of the North West.

Ashoka may have wanted us to abstain from war because of the destruction it
could produce. Moreover since he was spreading Buddhism, a religion of peace all
over the globe, he may not have apprehended any danger of wars.

This explains why we didn't inherit much super-knowledge from our ancestors.
We weren't meant to know it as it would be dangerous to one and all.
Post script: (How I ended up with this article). I was searching the Internet for secret Indian societies , but the results
repeatedly pointed to something called “the nine Unknown”. A little more searching revealed that it was started by Ashoka
etc. I have referred the following pages and also added my own inputs to write this article.

References:

The legend of Nine Unknown men

Wikipedia

Sanskrit texts

Please share any additional information if you may have it.