The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus

I propose in this paper to give a synoptic view of the mechanical, physical, and chemical theories of the ancient Hindus. A chronological survey, even if the materials for it were available, would be here of little account. The origins of Hindu natural philosophy in the speculations of the Brahmanas and the Upanishads, or in the mythology of the Purawas, do not come within the scope of the present exposition, which relates to the results of systematic thought as directed to the phenomena and processes of Nature. I have therefore confined myself to an account of natural philosophy as expounded in the principal systems of Hindu thought. The Sankhya - Patanjala system accounts for the Universe on principles of cosmic evolution; the Vaiseshika-Nyaya lays down the methodology of science, and elaborates the concepts of mechanics, physics, and chemistry. The Vedanta, the Purva-Mfmamsa, and in a less degree the Bauddha, the Jaina, and the Charvaka systems, make incidental contributions on points of special interest, but their main value in this regard is critical and negative. The principal authorities followed in this account — the Vyasa-Bhashya on Patanjali’s Sutras, the SamhitfL of Charaka, the Bhashya of Prasastapada, the Vartika of Udyotakara, and the Vnhat Samhita of Varahamihira — all centre round the Hindu Renaissance, the beginnings of the anti-Buddhist reaction in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries of the Christian era. Whenever I have made use of later authors, e.g. Kumarila, Sankara, Srldhara, Vachaspati, Udayana, Bhaskara, Jayanta, Varavara, Raghundtha, Vijnana-bhikshu, etc., I have taken care to see (except where the opposite is expressly mentioned) that no idea is surreptitiously introduced which is not explicitly contained in the earlier authors.