The document discusses the science and technology of pre-colonial South Asia, beginning with the Indus Valley Civilization from around 2600-1900 BCE. It describes the advanced urban planning of cities, use of irrigation in agriculture, and tools made of bronze and stone used in this period. During the Vedic period, the Aryans developed knowledge in areas like astronomy, mathematics, medicine, botany, and atomism. The Ayurvedic medical system was established with understandings of anatomy, etiology of disease, and treatments. Various sciences continued to develop and become more specialized in the post-Vedic period, with advances in fields like surgery, chemistry, metallurgy, glassmaking, pottery, agriculture

1. Pre-colonial
Science and
Technology in
the Third
Susantha Goonatilake
World

2. • Every human grouping constructs its
own map of physical reality, which it
often tests against the actual,
perceived reality, specially when this
is important for day-to-day physical
survival.
• These conceptual maps present
interpretations of events far removed
from everyday experience and the
immediately controllable world of
early man.

3. • These conceptual, myth-like constructs
covered uncontrollable events

4. • (Goonatilake, S.) Science: the search
for explanations of physical reality
– In the case of the physical sciences,
explanations of the reality which is ‘out
there’, manipulable by hand or by
instruments, and separate from the
mind.

5. • A formalized search for physical
knowledge, as well as a search for
knowledge in general, has occurred in
W
est, South and East Asia from very early
times.

6. South asian Knowledge,
Science and Technology
• In South Asia, as in other civilizations,
codified, formal, physical knowledge
preceded the Indus riverine civilizations.
• Living before the emergence of cities in
the sub-continent, had access to a vast
array of valid knowledge about nature.

7. • Study of the development of formalized
systems of knowledge from the city
culture period onwards, i.e. from the
period of the Indus civilization.
• Existing archaeological remains provide
enough evidence to reconstruct the
major outlines of the socio-economic
context of this culture as well as its
scientific and technological
achievements.

8. Indus Civilization

9. Indus Economy
• Agriculture
– built irrigation systems, canals and dikes to
control flooding of the Indus River
– products: wheat and barley, melon, banana
and cotton

10. • The architecture
of the city was
well developed,
with buildings
laid out
systematically
and a
surprisingly
modern drainage
system.

11. •
Indus Civilization
Technology extent,
Based on bronze and, to a certain
stone tools
– knife, saw, sickle, chisel, celt, razor, pin,
tweezers and fish hook.
– bronze spear, arrowhead and short sword

12. Two major cities
have almost identical layouts, which
hardly changed until the end of the
civilization

13. 2 main areas:
– Citadel (the elevated fortress of the
city)
– Lower city proper

14. 1) Citadel
-
-
protected by walls 40 feet wide at the base and
35 feet high.
several large buildings and structures on the
Citadel mound suggest that this area may have
been used for public gatherings, religious
activities or important administrative activities
large granary for grains, a marketplace and
public bath

15. 2) City Proper
WELL
lower in elevation whereS house are
the
the same and built against the street.
- has streets in a grid-pattern arrangement
and with residential blocks of almost the
same size
- houses are made of baked bricks and
PUBLIC BATHS
have one or more baths which is
connected to the city’s underground
plumbing system
ROAD
S

16. • The uniformity of construction and the
controlled size of bricks in the
buildings point to an awareness of
weights and m
easures.
• Studies of the meteorology of the
civilization indicate decimal divisions
of length (W
inter, 1975), which also
suggest an ability to perform the
simple arithmetical calculations
necessary for the maintenance of the
extensive commercial links of the area.

17. • W
hatever buildings have been excavated
W
heel-turned of brick which
seem to have been madepottery with
a brick-laying must also
indicates thatstandardized size also have
indicates an ability to
been an important occupation. Besides the
manufacture according to
above, people of the Indus Valley Civilization
specification
must also have followed the occupations of
seal-making, goldsmiths, pottery, beadmaking etc.

18. RELIGION
• animism and polytheism
• animal and human-shaped statues were found
(e.g. bull)
• they worshiped a fertility goddess from whom
all things sprung forth
• the presence of a horned, three-faced figure on
several seals is reminiscent of the conception of
Siva in the form of the Lord of Animals,
Pasupati.

19. Vedic Period
• Represented the next phase of the South Asian
cultural and intellectual search; there is more
evidence of it in the form of literature.
• Coincides with the arrival of essentially nomadic
barbarian tribes, the Aryans, who had access to
the horse and chariot and a surprising facility
with their language.

20. Vedas
– collection of hymns
and prayers made by
the Aryan priests so
they can recite it at
religious events.
– provide detailed
insights into the
scientific knowledge
of the era, scientific
knowledge which
covered, among other
areas, astronomy,
mathematics and

21. • Astronomy
– Rig-Vedic astronomy laid emphasis on
Mahayuga
observations of the moon and the nakshatra
-- described a cosmic cycle with a
system, based on the lunar months,
period of 12,000 divine years
contrasted with the Babylonian zodiac which
equivalent to 360 solar years, that
was solar.
is 4,320,000 years.
– the priests associatedon this great culture
-- it was said that with the Vedic
were required cosmos turned itself. at
cycle, the to perform sacrifices
auspicious times and therefore had to
develop calendars.

22. • Mathematics
– knowledge of numbers up to 1012
– basic arithmetical operations were also
known, including those of addition,
subtraction and multiplication, as well as
some fractions
– practical geometry was used, and the
Pythagoras theorem in a practical form was
known
– meruprastara
• a pyramidal expansion of the number of
combinations of one, two, etc. syllables
formed of short and long sounds

23. • The civilization also had a knowledge of
medicines which was later to be developed into
the more systematic Ayurveda.
• This latter knowledge encompassed careful
observation of the physical body and it behavior.
• It also constituted knowledge of the practical
workings of the voluntary and involuntary
muscular system learnt through yoga-type
practices.

24. • Botany
– a systematic knowledge of plants and
animals existed along with a developed
system of classification
– the Vedic farmers were aware of the
possibility of improving the fertility of the
soil by rotation of crops.

25. • By the time of the early Upanishads, an
explanatory system which attempted a
holistic description of nature appeared in
the form of the pancha bhutas
– Five elements:
•
•
•
•
•
prthvi - earth
ap – water
tejas – heat
vayu – air
akasa - emptiness

26. • Systems of atomism were known in
several philosophical schools, and
causality and systems of logic were also
developed.
• Panini
– was a Sanskrit grammarian who gave a
comprehensive and scientific theory of
phonetics, phonology and morphology
– he used the concept of zero

27. • Ayurveda
– it was a thoroughgoing scientific
discipline with a realistic approach to
nature.
– Ayurvedic system was holistic, disease
being explained as owing to imbalances in
various attributes.
Four central concepts underlying Ayurveda
•
•
•
•
the disease
the cause of the disease
the manner of removing the disease
the introduction of health

28. • The doctrine of pancha bhutas is
cited in order to describe the
manner in which food is digested
and absorbed into the body.
• There were theories of bone
therapy and treatment of the
nervous system.
• An effective smallpox vaccinations
also existed.

29. • The ancient Indian pharmacopoeia was
very substantial and consisted of
products of animal, vegetable and mineral
origin.
• Of the large variety of drugs used,
mention should be made of the oil of the
chaulmugra tree, a specific treatment for
leprosy which is still the basis for its
treatment today.

30. Ayurveda
• The instruments used in
• Surgery
surgery by the early
– incision
centuries of the
– excision
Christian era included
– scarification
101 varieties of blunt
instrument and 20 kinds
– puncturing
of sharp instrument
– exploration
• Practical training in
– extraction
surgery was obtained by
– evacuation
practice on the skins of
– suturing
deer, goats or sheep,
puncturing distended
bags, dead cattle, meat,

31. • Chemicals now began to be used in
medicine, in addition to herbs, which
gave an impetus to the development of
proto-chemistry.
• The Atharvaveda (8th century BC)
describes the use of gold to preserve
life, while Buddhist text from the 2nd to
the 5th century AD discuss the
transmutation of base metal to gold by
the use of vegetable juices and mineral
water.

32. Post-Vedic Period
• Technology:
–
–
–
–
glass manufacture
high-level pottery manufacture
use of iron
development of irrigation schemes
• Many different branches of science
emerged and became codified in
scientific and technical texts.

33. • Aryabhata I developed a theory
of the roration of the earth and
epicycles while Brahmagupta
refuted Aryabhata’s theories on
the rotation of the earth.
Bhaskara II further developed
theories about the evolution of
planets by epicyclic-eccentric
motions

34. • Classification of plants and animals was
attempted, with detailed descriptions of
plant and animal life.
– whether sexual or asexual
• Agricultural practices were well
developed, and texts devoted to
agriculture and horticulture became
standard works.
• 4th century – routine surgical operations
on animals

35. • Science developed so continuously that
Said al-Andalusi, one of the prominent
Arab commentators and historians of
science of the 11th Century, called
South Asia the leading centre of
contemporary science in the world.