Yantras or Mechanical Contrivances in Ancient India c2.25

c2.25

Mechanical skill had produced in ancient India many accessories for scientific activities, such as surgical instruments in medicine, the *pākayantras* or laboratory equipment in medicine, *Rasāyana*, and the astronomical yantras⁵ described in Jyotiṣa works. These belong to a different category. Nor do I propose to touch upon very late material, when Sanskrit writers translated or reproduced from Persian works, as for instance the *Bhārotthāpana-yantra-nirmāṇa* on weight-