Wednesday 14 August 2024

Discussion

Excerpts from Dharampalji's book Indian Science and Technology in the 18th Century (1971)

After reading the above excerpts, it is natural to wonder how our ancestors could achieve all this without access to libraries, computers, and other sophisticated equipment. It is also natural to reflect on the present situation in India, which is quite different. Most of the research work in the leading Indian institutions is motivated by ideas and problems generated in Western countries. In most fields, we have become followers rather than leaders. Why have the springs of creativity dried up? Is it because the present educational system stifles the spirit of enquiry? Is it because a large proportion of the people engaged in teaching and research do not really enjoy their vocation? Is it because the hustle and bustle of modern living, with its attendant insecurities, deadlines, and distractions provide little time for contemplation? Is it because centuries of indigenous knowledge about various procedures and processes were abandoned, over a relatively short period, in favour of the current scientific approach? Is it because our ancestors observed nature more keenly than we do nowadays? As a hymn from the Rig Veda puts it: "Who knows for certain? Who shall here declare it?"



Fig. 1 The Observatory at Benares (reproduced from Barker, 1777, with permission from the Royal Society of London).

Acknowledgement: I am very grateful to Shri Dharampal for permitting me to reproduce excerpts from his book, and the Royal Society of London for permission to reproduce Fig. 1 from Barker (1777). The first part of the title is taken from a book entitled "The Wonder that was India" by A.L. Basham, Picador, London (2004). The introduction and section 1.1 were published in the Asian Journal of Professional Ethics and Management 10 (2018) 5-8.

References :

Barker, R., The process of making ice in the East Indies, Phil. Trans.65 (1775) 252-257.
Barker, R., An account of the Bramin's observatory at Benares, Phil. Trans., Roy. Soc. London, 67 (1777) 598-607.
Burrow, R., A proof that the Hindoos had the binomial theorem, Asiatic Researches, II (1790), 487-497.
Burton, D.M., The History of Mathematics, Allyn and Bacon, 1985.
Coult, Ro., An account of the diseases of Bengall (letter from Ro.Coult to Dr.Oliver
Coult, 10 February 1731). It is on ff.271v-272r in Add.MS.4432 among the Royal Society papers in the British Museum.
Franklin, J., The mode of manufacturing of iron in central India, 1835, India Office 
Library, MS EUR D154.
Heyne, B., Tracts on India, 1814, p.363.
Holwell, J.Z., An account of the manner of inoculation for the smallpox in the East Indies, Report addressed to the President and Members of the College of Physicians in London, 1767.
Majumdar, R., Raychaudhuri, H.C., and Datta, K., 1967 An Advanced History of India, 3rd ed., p.564.
Mushet, D. Experiments on Wootz or Indian steel, British Museum 727 k.3, 65-662.
Scott, H., Aspects of technology in Western India (Extracts from letters sent by Dr.Scott to Sir J.Banks, President, Royal Society of London, 1790-1801). Add MS 33979 (ff 1-13; 127-130; 135-6; 233-6); Add MS 33980 (ff 305-310) and Add MS 35262 (ff 14-5) in the British Museum.
Pearson, G., Experiments and observations to investigate the nature of a kind of steel, manufactured at Bombay, and there called Wootz; with remarks on the properties and composition of different states of iron, Phil. Trans, 85 (1795) 322-346.
Playfair, J. 1790 Remarks on the astronomy of the Brahmins. Trans. Roy. Soc.
Edinburgh, II (1790), part I, 135-192.
Walker, A. (ca.1820), Indian agriculture. Walker of Bowland papers, National Library of Scotland, 184a.3, 577-654.

By K. Kesava Rao
Department of Chemical Engineering
Indian Institute of Science
Bengaluru 560012, India
kesava@iisc.ac.in

--
कथा : विवेकानन्द केन्द्र { Katha : Vivekananda Kendra }
Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Vivekananda Kendra : http://www.vivekanandakendra.org
Read n Get Articles, Magazines, Books @ http://prakashan.vivekanandakendra.org

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मुक्तसंग्ङोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वित:।
सिद्ध‌‌यसिद्धयोर्निर्विकार: कर्ता सात्त्विक उच्यते ॥१८.२६॥

Freed from attachment, non-egoistic, endowed with courage and enthusiasm and unperturbed by success or failure, the worker is known as a pure (Sattvika) one. Four outstanding and essential qualities of a worker. - Bhagwad Gita : XVIII-26

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Tuesday 13 August 2024

Indian Agriculture (Walker, ca. 1820)

Excerpts from Dharampalji's book Indian Science and Technology in the 18th Century (1971)

Nothing should surprise us more in the present condition of the Indian cultivator than his preserving industry, and well cultivated fields. Any other than a people of a buoyant spirit would have sunk under these circumstances.

The Hindoos have been long in possession of one of the most beautiful and useful inventions in agriculture. This is the Drill Plough. This instrument has been in use from the remotest times in India. I never, however, observed it in Malabar, as it is not required in rice cultivation in which its advantages have been superseded by transplanting. The system of transplanting is only in fact another method of obtaining the same object as by drill husbandry. It would be but just to adduce this, as another proof of ingenuity of this people and of their successful attention to this branch of labour.

[Dharampal notes that the drill plough is said to have been first used in Europe by one Joseph Locatelli of Carinthia (Austria) in 1662. Its introduction in England dates from 1730.]

They have a variety of implements per husbandry process, some of which have only been introduced into England in the course of our recent improvements. They clean their fields both by hoeing and hand weeding; they have weeding ploughs, which root out and extirpate the weeds. A roller would be useless on rice grounds, which are always wet and frequently an equal mixture of water and mud. The place of the roller is supplied by an instrument which levels or smooths the grounds, without turning on an axis. They have also mallets for breaking clods, the usual assortment of hoes, harrows and rakes.

It is the practice in many parts of India to sow different species of seeds in the same field. This practice has been censured, but it is probably done for the same reason that our farmers sow rye-grass and clover with wheat, barley, or oats; tares with rye; beans with peas; vetches and corn, etc

It has been found by experience that these crops not only thrive in the same field; but improve each other. Rye and oats for instance, serve to support the weak creeping tares, and add besides to the bulk of the crop by growing through the interstices. Clover and rye grass are sheltered by the corn. This analogy will apply to the husbandry of India. These similar experiments may be carried further, where the climate and soil are superior. In India different kinds of seeds when sown in the same field are kept separate by the Drill, or they are mixed together, and sown broadcast. In the last case they are commonly cut down as forage. A plant called sota gowar, is sown broadcast with sugar cane in Guzerat (Gujarat). The gowar serves as a shelter to the sugar cane, from the violent heat of the sun, during the most scorching season of the year. Joar and badgery are sown together, in the same country late, not for the sake of a crop, but for straw, which is very nutritive, and very abundant. This is one of the instances in which the natives provide a green crop for their cattle. Other grains are sown both together and separately, merely for their straw. Soondea, darrya joar, rateeja and goograjoar are sown together: but with the exception, of goograjoar which is allowed to ripen, the rest are reapt while they are green.

It is evident that these examples are not founded on bad principles, and that they are in conformity with the best practice of farming. They evince the care of the Hindoo husbandman to provide food for his labouring cattle. This is an object to which I have generally seen him attentive; but in many parts of India during the dry season it is extremely difficult, and often exceeds the impoverished means of the cultivator, to lay in a sufficient supply. He is sensible enough of the want, and does his utmost to scrape together, all the heterogeneous substances that are within his reach. In some parts of India, hay is not
made, in other parts it is a regular crop, stacked and preserved. This is the case in Guzerat, and some other pergunnahs. The hay is cut down not by the scythe but by the reapers hook: It is dried and brought home in carts. The stacks are generally of an oblong shape something like our own, but often of much larger dimensions than any that I have seen in England. The stack is not thatched merely, but covered by a movable roof. In those parts of India where hay is not made and which are I believe unfavourable to this kind of crop, the cattle are fed with the roots of grass, very like our fiorin, with straw, and especially with the straw of joaree, all the which are considered to be very nourishing food. The roots of this grass are preferred by our own people in the Carnatic to hay. Besides the Hindoo in many parts of India, prepares crops of pulse, solely for the use of his domestic animals. In some place he feeds them with carrots.

The practice of watering and irrigation is not peculiar to the husbandry of India, but it has probably been carried there to a great extent, and more laborious ingenuity displayed in it than in any other country. The vast and numerous tanks, reservoirs, and artificial lakes as well as dams of solid masonry in rivers which they constructed for the purpose of fertilizing their fields, show the extreme solicitude which they had to secure this object. [Dharampal notes that the above observation is in dramatic contrast to the present day book accounts of the comparative absence of artificial irrigation in eighteenth century India
(Majumdar et al., 1967).]

Besides the great reservoirs for water, the country is covered with numerous wells which are employed for watering the fields. The water is raised by wheel either by men or by bullocks, and it is afterwards conveyed by little canals which diverged on all sides, so as to convey sufficient quantity of moisture to the roots of the most distant plants. When these are seen in operation it gives the most cheerful picture of quiet and useful industry, that can occur even to the imagination. The very sight of it conveys to the mind peace and tranquillity.

By K. Kesava Rao
Department of Chemical Engineering
Indian Institute of Science
Bengaluru 560012, India
kesava@iisc.ac.in
...To be continued ...

--
कथा : विवेकानन्द केन्द्र { Katha : Vivekananda Kendra }
Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Vivekananda Kendra : http://www.vivekanandakendra.org
Read n Get Articles, Magazines, Books @ http://prakashan.vivekanandakendra.org

Let's work on "Swamiji's Vision - Eknathji's Mission"
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मुक्तसंग्ङोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वित:।
सिद्ध‌‌यसिद्धयोर्निर्विकार: कर्ता सात्त्विक उच्यते ॥१८.२६॥

Freed from attachment, non-egoistic, endowed with courage and enthusiasm and unperturbed by success or failure, the worker is known as a pure (Sattvika) one. Four outstanding and essential qualities of a worker. - Bhagwad Gita : XVIII-26

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Monday 12 August 2024

Iron and Steel - Dharampal’s comments on Indian steel

Excerpts from Dharampalji's book Indian Science and Technology in the 18th Century (1971)

The substance which seems to have evoked most scientific and technical interest in the Britain of the 1790s was the sample of wootz steel sent by Dr. Scott to Sir J. Banks, the President of the British Royal Society. The same went through examination and analysis by several experts (Mushet, Pearson, 1795). It was found in general to match the best steel then available in Britain, and according to one user, "promises to be of importance to the manufactures of Britain (Heyne, 1814). He found it "excellently adapted for the purpose of fine cutlery, and particularly for all edge instruments used for surgical purposes". After its being sent as a sample in 1794 and its examination and analysis in late 1794 and early 1795, it began to be much in demand; and some 18 years later the afore quoted user of
steel stated, "I have at this time a liberal supply of Wootz, and I intend to use it for many purposes. If a better steel is offered to me, I will gladly attend to it; but the steel of India is decidedly the best I Have yet met with" (Heyne, 1814).

Whatever may have been the understanding in the other European countries regarding details of the processes employed in the manufacture of Indian steel, the British, at the time wootz was examined and analysed by them, concluded "that it is made directly from the ore; and consequently that it has never been in the state of wrought iron" (Pearson, 1795). Its qualities were thus ascribed to the quality of the ore from which it came and these equalities were considered to have little to do with the techniques and processes employed by the Indian manufacturers. In fact it was felt that the various cakes of wootz were of uneven texture and the cause of such imperfection and defects was thoughts to lie in the crudeness of the techniques employed.

It was only some three decades later that this view was revised. An earlier version in fact, even when confronted with contrary evidence as was made available by other observers in the Indian techniques and processes, was an intellectual impossibility. "That iron could be converted into cast steel by fusing it in a closed vessel in contact with carbon" was yet to be discovered, and it was only in 1825 that a British manufacturer "took out a patent for converting iron into steel by exposing it to the action of carburreted hydrogen gas in a closed vessel, at a very high temperature, by which means the process of conversion is completed in a few hours, while by the old method, it was the work of from 14 to 20 days" (Heath, cited in Mushet).

According to J. M. Heath, founder of the Indian Iron and Steel Company, and later prominently associated with the development of steel making in Sheffield, the Indian process appear to combine both of the above early 19th century British discoveries. He observed: "Now it appears to me that the Indian process combines the principles of both the above desired methods. On elevating the temperature of the crucible containing pure iron, and dry wood, and green leafs, an abundant evolution of carburreted hydrogen gas would take place from the vegetable matter, and as its escape would be prevented by the luting at the mouth of the crucible, it would be retained in contact with the iron, which, at a high temperature, appears (from the above-mentioned patent process) to have a much greater affinity for gaseous then for concrete carbon; this would greatly shorten the operation and probably yet a much lower temperature then were the iron in contact with charcoal powder." (Cited in Mushet)

And he added: "In no other way can I account for the fact that iron is converted into cast steel by the natives of India, in 2 hours and a half, with an application of heat, that, in this country, would be considered quite inadequate to produce such an effect; while at Sheffield it requires at least four 4 hours to melt blistered steel in wind-furnaces of the best construction, although the crucibles in which the steel is melted are at a white heat when the material is put into them, and in the Indian process, the crucibles are put into the furnace quite cold".

The above quoted British authority however did not imply that the Indian practice was based on a knowledge "of the theory of his operations" by the Indian manufacturer. He felt it to be impossible "that the process was discovered by any scientific induction, for the theory of it can only be explained by the lights of modern chemistry".

By K. Kesava Rao
Department of Chemical Engineering
Indian Institute of Science
Bengaluru 560012, India
kesava@iisc.ac.in
...To be continued ...

--
कथा : विवेकानन्द केन्द्र { Katha : Vivekananda Kendra }
Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Vivekananda Kendra : http://www.vivekanandakendra.org
Read n Get Articles, Magazines, Books @ http://prakashan.vivekanandakendra.org

Let's work on "Swamiji's Vision - Eknathji's Mission"
Follow Vivekananda Kendra on   blog   twitter   g+   facebook   rss   delicious   youtube   Donate Online

मुक्तसंग्ङोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वित:।
सिद्ध‌‌यसिद्धयोर्निर्विकार: कर्ता सात्त्विक उच्यते ॥१८.२६॥

Freed from attachment, non-egoistic, endowed with courage and enthusiasm and unperturbed by success or failure, the worker is known as a pure (Sattvika) one. Four outstanding and essential qualities of a worker. - Bhagwad Gita : XVIII-26

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