History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c4.1

v1.c4.1

Each age has its own technology and the technology carries the stamp of its age. This is a well-known dictum. But this two-way relationship between society at any epoch and its technology, becomes meaningful only when each topic is taken by itself and linked with other areas of technology upon which it was dependent or the age in which it was developed. This approach has not always been made possible since in ancient times there was as such no strict boundary of regions, and material techniques moved with movement of people, through trade, commerce and for livelihood. The modern specialists, on the other hand, are mostly bound by their individual speciality, age, and sometimes their individual country. Availability of document and their exact decipherment are problems to this kind of approach. In a book of technology, the technical details are also of primary importance. Keeping these in mind the series was restricted to technology of Indian subcontinent only based on the survey of literary sources, archaeological reports and materials of different periods and dynasties, and studies made on them from time to time.