Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c5.2

c5.2

Much encouragement, advice and support have been necessary in the undertaking and continuation of this exploring and research during the past 5-6 years. Besides my wife, Phyllis, and my parents, Annasaheb Sahasrabudhe, Jayaprakash Narayan, R.K. Patil and Ram Swarup have provided constant encouragement and advice during this research. The thoughts leading to it, however, developed over a much longer period and owe their beginning to a large number of friends and colleagues who have helped me over the years in my understanding of India and brought me nearer to its varied life. Mirabehn, Mohini Mittal, Sushila Madhav, Sham Krishna Chandiwala, Kapil Dev Pandey, Jagdish Prasad Mittal, Sita Ram Goel, Jai Prakash Sharma, Mulk Raj Sethi, Roop Narayan, Kedar Singh, Triloki Nath Purwar, Krishna Murti Gupta, Satya Narayan Gupta, Sunder Lal Bahuguna, Suryakant Parikh, Ramjibhai, Tulsi Bannerji, Salig Ram Pathik, Kumbha Ram Arya, Evelyn Wood and many others have afforded me much of their time and attention towards achieving it. I am similarly beholden to Ram Manohar Lohia, R. Bhaskaran, Iravati Karve, G. Venkatachalapathy and Beni Madhav, all of whom are no more. Rajeshwara Patel, A.B. Chatterji, B.L. Sethi, Radhakrishna, Narendra and Swaran Datta, Glyn and Tania England, Pandit and Prem Patankar, Sushila and Kulwant Rai, A.C. Sen, Gopal Krishna, L.C. Jain, S.K. Saxena, Brij Mohan Toofan, Mukund Lat, Prakash Jain, N. Islam, M.I. Moir, S. Saraswathi, Ranjit Gupta, Mohammed Rafiq Khan, and G.D. Bhatia amongst others have shown continuing interest in this research and have raised important questions and provided valuable suggestions from time to time. I am particularly obliged to Bernie Horowitz, Sylvia Jacobs and Surinder Suri for advice and criticism; the first two have afforded me countless hours, during their short stay in India, in going over the drafts of the Introduction as well as text of the documents included, and helped me avoid many pitfalls.