Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c6.s3.28

c6.s3.28

There are many philosophical formulations regarding the growth and decline of human societies (or the various stages which they are supposed to pass through). The theory of atrophy (as usually applied to India) is one of them. It is possible that it also has some relevance in explaining the growth, flowering and decline of Indian society. Though the contemporary data, as separate from opinions and formulations, does not seem to indicate that the eighteenth century sciences and technologies in India had atrophied, some of them may well have been in such a state. It is possible that various other current or past formulations on the subject of growth and decline of human societies also have some contribution to make in explaining what happened to Indian science and society over the millennia.