History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India, Incorporating the History of Hindu Chemistry by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray c38.s1.15

c38.s1.15

The arts thus being relegated to the low castes, and the professions made hereditary, a certain degree of fineness, delicacy and deftness in manipulation was no doubt secured, but this was accomplished at a terrible cost. The intellectual portion of the community being thus withdrawn from active participation in the arts, the *how* and *why* of phenomenon—the co-ordination of cause and effect—were lost sight of. The spirit of enquiry gradually died out among a nation, naturally prone to speculation and metaphysical subtleties, and India for once bade adieu to experimental and inductive sciences. Her soil was rendered morally unfit for the birth of a Boyle, a Descartes, or a Newton, and her very name was all but expunged from the map of the scientific world for a time.