A Concise History of Science in India c14.3

c14.3

THE great subcontinent of Asia, which in area is nearly equal to that of Europe with the exception of Russia and which goes under the name of *Bhāratavarṣa*a or India,b has played a distinct role in the history of technology and science. Geologically it is believed that during the Mesozoic era (about 230 million years ago) a great part of the now known Himalayan region was beneath the sea (called the Tethys sea), while the peninsula, possibly with the exception of the coastal area, must have been a land at least since the Permo-Carboniferous period (over 300 million years ago). The gradual uplift of the Himalayas is supposed to have occurred mainly in Eocene-Oligocene (about 30 to 40 million years ago), and the final phase of the mountain elevation in the Pleistocene periods. The principal features of this subcontinent had assumed more or less the present shape and topography possibly by the early Pleistocene time (about one to two million years ago), save, in front of the newly elevated mountain ranges, the region which formed almost a longitudinal depression or a foredeep corresponding to the high mountainous terrain. It has been conjectured that this depression got filled up by alluvial and wind-blown deposits, and became the plains fit enough for habitation geologically not very long ago.a Known as the Indo-Gangetic plains because of flow of many a river belonging to the Indus-Ganges system, the plains are reputed for their fertility and effective manoeuvrability for agricultural operations, and have been the home, from time to time, of a number of different groups of people who developed their agriculture, arts, crafts and industries. There has been yet another fertile alluvial tract covering the region of modern Gujarat and Kathiawar formed by the river and estuarine depositions, which also witnessed the growth of advanced human settlements. In contradistinction to these alluvial formations which geologically are not old enough, is the much older laterite rocky terrain of the peninsula comparatively less fertile than the northern plains, and here also is found evidence of early human inhabitants some of whom belonged to the neolithic and chalcolithic stages. It should be noted that the natural environments provided by these geological features of the subcontinent and not inconsiderably the latter’s geographical position with reference to the other culture-areas of the then known world have been not only stimulative to, but also determinative of, the endeavours of man the maker and man the thinker in this part of the globe.