HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN INDIA

HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY IN INDIA

1. MX2662
HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY IN INDIA

2. UNIT I
CONCEPT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Science and Technology: Meaning - Scope and
Importance - Interaction of Science, Technology & Society,
Sources of history on science and technology in India.

3. HISTORY

4. HISTORY
Study of Past Events:
●History involves the systematic examination and
analysis of past events, actions, and phenomena
that have shaped human societies and
civilizations.
●Historians collect and analyze evidence from
various sources such as written records,
archaeological artifacts, oral traditions, and visual
materials to reconstruct and interpret the past.

5. “The significance of India’s contributions to the
history of science, technology, engineering and
mathematics cannot be overstated,” said Matt
Kimberley, head of content for the exhibition at the
museum
“From the birth of the mathematical concept of zero
over 1,500 years ago, to the lifesaving medical
technologies of today designed on the principles of
jugaad, India and its people have played a pivotal
role in shaping the global narrative of the history of
science,”

7. Indus Valley civilization
Two major cities called Harappa and Mohenjo-
Daro were excavated in this area. Harappa is one
of the ancient cities of the Indus Valley
civilization. Harappa was identified in the Punjab
region of British India, about 100 miles southwest
of Lahore in modern-day Pakistan. Mohenjo-Daro
was in the Sindh region, which is now the Larkana
District of Pakistan.

8. To quote from the
display at the London
Science Museum:
The reservoirs
and the network of
water channels they
supplied
( during the
Indus Valley
Civilization about
5000 years back) were
unrivalled in the ancient
world; photograph taken
by the author at the
London Science Museum.

14. Nalanda University
●Nalanda University (see Fig. 4) was founded in 427 AD. According
to the official website of Nalanda University'.
●Nalanda has been a renowned centre for learning from the 5th
century until it was destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khilji in the 12th
century. ..
●According to Dr. Geoffrey Durham, Nalanda is proclaimed as, "One
of the most important universities in the world, was developed not
in the medieval west, but right here in India: Nalanda University ... was
instrumental in producing people who are capable of understanding
and articulating what it means to have universal knowledge,
knowledge that is applicable across cultures and across times.

15. ●The decimal system was already in place during the Harappan period,
as indicated by an analysis of Harappan weights and measures; it is
believed that the Harappan period was around 2000 BC.
●There are references in the Vedic literature that suggest that copper
vessels were coated with tin to prevent milk from turning sour.
●Arithmetic operations (which we call as Ganit) such as addition,
subtraction, multiplication, fractions, squares, are enumerated in a
manuscript by Ved Vyas, which was written about 1000 BC.
●About 700 BC, astronomer Yajnavalkya showed that the distance of the
Moon from the Earth was 108 times its diameter and the distance of the
Sun from the Earth was also 108 times its diameter. These values are very
close to the modern values of 110.6 for the Moon and 107.6 for the
Sun. ·
KEY MILESTONES

16. ●Pythagoras, the famous Greek mathematician and
philosopher (born around 550 BC), was familiar with the and
learnt his basic geometry from the Sulva Sutras written about
800 BC
●Around 300 BC, Kautilya's manuscript on Arthashastra had a
section outlining the processes for metal extraction and
alloying.
●Around 500 AD (i.e. about 1500 years back), the
mathematician-astronomer Aryabhatta propounded that
planets rotate on their axes causing day and night and follow
elliptical orbits around the Sun. He also explained the causes
of the solar and lunar eclipses and predicted their times of
occurrence.

18. SCIENCE
●‘Science’ derives from the Latin scientia
meaning ‘knowledge’.
●It is the study, description, experimental
investigation, and theoretical explanation
of the nature and behaviour of phenomena
in the physical and natural world.

20. Technology
●Technology, the term derives from the
Greek technologic meaning systematic
treatment of an art.
●Technology uses science for human
purposes
●Technology is the application of science,
usually for industrial processes;

21. quiz
Which statement is true?
○Science makes things work
○Technology explains how things work
○Science is an application of technology
○Technology makes things work

22. Science and technology
●Science has contributed a lot to modern technology.
●The nature of science is to explain how and why things
happen in the universe.
●The aim of technology is to make things happen or
work.
●Technology is therefore an application of science.
●Not all of technology is based on science and nor is
science necessary for all of technology.

23. Science and technology
All phenomena are the result of science and
technology, whether smartphones, fans, tyres,
automobiles, fabric, paper, toothbrushes, power,
microwave, automobiles, radio, television, laptop
computers, etc.

24. Science and technology
Science and technology are among the basic factors
in the dividing wall between poverty and prosperity.
There is no doubt that science and technology have
shaped and reshaped India over the years.

25. Science and technology
Large-scale applications in
industry, scientific principles
have been profitably applied in
the field of agriculture to
increase yield and improve
crops.
Health is directly and indirectly
influenced by the discoveries of
science and technology.

26. Science and technology-Benefits
The role of science and technology is of special importance in a
developing country like India, in the economic as well as the social
aspects.
Intelligent use of science and technology can increase production and
productivity, reduce drudgery and generate employment;
it can also be instrumental in reducing and eradicating disease and
thus ensuring a healthy population.
Science and technology go a long way in ensuring optimum use of
resources—economic and human.

27. Science and technology
●The result of research and experimentation is seen in the
transformation of a subsistence agriculture into commercial
agriculture;
●control and eradica­tion of diseases like plague and smallpox;
establishment and rapid development of an industrial base;
● development of electronics, nuclear energy capability, space
exploration,

28. Science and technology- shortcomings:
dangerous side effects of rapid technological development
have to be seriously and earnestly faced and checked:
environmental degradation, for instance, has to be
prevented with the very help of the science and technology
whose careless application can cause irreversible damage