Hindu Achievements in Exact Science: A Study in the History of Scientific Development c16.5

c16.5

The Hindu chemical investigators of the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. (the age of Gupta-Vikramadityan Renaissance) were far in advance of Roger Bacon (thirteenth century). In fact, they anticipated by one millennium the work of Paracelsus (sixteenth century) and Libavius (seventeenth century). "The physico-chemical theories as to combustion, heat, chemical affinity were clearer, more rational, and more original than those of Van Helmont or Stahl." (Seal.)⁴⁴