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Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c46.s2: Scientific Concepts Related to Material Science

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c46.s2

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English

Scientific Concepts Related to Material Science

v2.c46.s2.1

Notwithstanding the technical excellence related to minerals and metals in ancient India, the question remains as to the level of scientific appreciation in the ancient world.

v2.c46.s2.2

The Harappans were meticulous about measurements and standardisation, and it is a pity that their scripts have not yet been deciphered. The Vedic literatures illustrate basic advancements in linguistics, mathematics, geometry and astronomy which are outside the purview of our studies.

v2.c46.s2.3

Atharvaveda speculated (4.10.1-7) about the cause of orign of conch-shell and conch-pearl. Along with a mythological theory of these gems originating from ‘gods bones’, the other theory proclaimed that the materials could have grown in the sea under atmospheric influences. This mixture of belief in mythology and rational thinking continued for centuries. We find Varāhamihira declaring (*Br. Sam.*, 80.3) in the fifth century AD that the wonderful variety of gems is caused by the characteristic qualities of the earth, and yet the fourteenth century AD text *Rasaratnasamuccaya* continued to repeat the mythological theory.

v2.c46.s2.4

Kauṭilya referred to the scientific approach of categorisation of gems according to colour. The *Ratnaśāstra* texts brought in the useful criteria of relative hardness, specific gravity and optical properties towards the identification of gems. The reference to *rasapāka* in Kauṭilya shows that *rasaśāstra* studies had been initiated during his time to transform matter to useful varieties. Alchemy gradually evolved from the sustained efforts of Caraka, Suśruta, Patañjali and Nāgārjuna.

v2.c46.s2.5

In the meantime, the postulate about the atomic constitution of matter, made by Kaṇāda, was being refined by the followers of the *Vaiśeṣika*, Buddhist and Jain philosophies. Yet there was little correlation between the atomic theories (speculative in nature) and the *rasaśāstra* experiments related to distillation, digestion, reduction, oxidation, sulfidisation, etc. During the Tāntric period we obtain the concept of *sattva/satva* denoting metallic essence, the metal extracted from a mineral or ore. There are references to ‘mercury from mercuric sulphide’, ‘copper from copper sulphate’ etc., but no categorical statement to the effect that such an extracted metal is indeed the same as the variety available in native state or obtainable from another source. Iatro-chemistry in ancient India fell short of the European breakthrough in Daltonian Chemistry, and yet by the thirteenth century it had outgrown the earlier alchemical extravaganza.

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