Author: Brajendranath Seal
Editor(s): Jyotirmoy Gupta
Publisher: Sahitya Samsad
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 218
ISBN/UPC (if available): N/A
Description
This book offers a synoptic view of the mechanical, physical and chemical theories of the ancient Hindus, covering the Sankhya-Patanjala system, chemistry in the medical schools of ancient India, the philosophical positions of the Vedantic, Buddhist, Jain and Nyaya Vaisheshika schools.
This work also contains Hindu ideas on mechanics, acoustics, plants and plant life, physiology and biology, opening up areas never studied so closely before. The last chapter on the 'Hindu Doctrine of Scientific Method' is a comprehensive and authoritative contribution to the history of ideas, still relevant for its brilliant insights.
In the present state of Indian chronology it is not possible to assign dates to the original sources from which the materials have been drawn. Practically the main body of the positive knowledge here presented may be assigned to the millennium 500BC -500AD. The progress of Indian Algebra (mainly in Southern India) after Bhaskara, parallel to the developments in China and Japan, is a subject that remains for future investigation.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Acharya Brajendranath Seal": A short Biography
Foreword by Brajendrnath Seal
CHAPTER I
The Mechanical, Physical, and Chemical Theories of the Ancient Hindus
Chemistry in the Medical Schools of Ancient India
Vedantic View
The Atomic Theory of the Jains
The Nyaya-Vaiseshika Chemical Theory
Conception of Molecular Motion (Parispanda)
Addenda: Empirical Recipes of Chemical Technology
CHAPTER II
Hindu Ideas on Mechanics (Kinetics)
CHAPTER III
Hindu ideas on Acoustics
CHEAPER IV
Hindu Ideas About Plants and Plant-Life
CHAPTER V
Hindu Classification of Animals
CHAPTER VI
Hindu Physiology and Biology
CHAPTER VII
Hindu Doctrine of Scientific Method