ROOTS OF REASON: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN ANCIENT INDIA

Abstract

The scientific and technological accomplishment of ancient India form one of the most significant, yet underrecognised, parts of world intellectual history. Centuries before the Europe underwent its scientific revolution, scientists and thinkers across the Indian subcontinent had already built up organised bodies of knowledge spanning mathematics, astronomy, medicine, metallurgy and civil engineering. This chapter explores the depth as well as the breath of those accomplishments within the larger context of the Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS). Using historical texts, archaeological findings and academic scholarship, the discussion brings into focus key personalities and traditions, including the Aryabhata’s work and achievement in astronomy, the surgical knowledge recorded in the Sushruta Samhita, the conceptual development of zero, and the metallurgical skill behind the Delhi Iron Pillar. The chapter also considers how all these ancient tradition remains relevant today including their connections to the aims of India’s NEP 2020.