Chemistry in ancient India

Ray, PraphuIIa Chandra. Progress of chemistry in ancient India. Sci Cult 2, no. 

Chemistry in ancient India was largely restriced to making medicines, g dyes, glass, alkalies, acids and their metallic salts. The chemistry of the Tantrik period (800-1300 AD) contained in their Siddha philosophy was largely devoted to the elixir of life and similar themes of alchemical importance. Buddhist... 

Ray, Priyadaranjan. History of chemistry in ancient and medieval India, incorporating the History of Hindu chemistry by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray. Calcutta Amsterdam Indian Chemical Soc Swets Zeitlinger, 1956. 494p. 

Praphulla Chandra Ray, History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India (Indian Chemical Society, Calcutta, 1956). 

The notion of atoms arrived in the East, ancient India, prior to its appearance in the West, the ancient Mediterranean (Greek) world. Both societies were polytheistic, and philosopher-chemists dominated the study of chemistry. Atomic concepts were based upon philosophical considerations and not experimental observations. No exchange on atomism between these two regions in this ancient time has been detected, indicating that these concepts were developed independently ). These developments occurred dming Period I of the Ancient Regime of Chemistry (—10,000 BCE - —100 BCE), which may be called the... 

Traditions of ancient writers attribute some discoveries in these lines to India or Persia, or other Asiatic countries, but as to whether any of these countries contributed in any important way to the development of Egyptian chemical knowledge, or whether at some time these countries learned their arts from Egypt, we cannot safely determine from such tradition. It is quite certain that both in China and in India the chemistry of the metals and alloys, methods of dyeing and the use of certain chemicals in medicine were practiced at ancient periods, but their chronology is diffi-... 

Chemistry has been used by people in India from the ancient times. 

The ancient history of Indian chemical technology mostly concerns the production of small amounts of material in many different places. However, in the case of iron, as shown above, the ability to cast larger objects was not exceeded elsewhere in the world. Exports in early times included salt, sugar, and some metal products. Under the British during the nineteenth century, both a development of and a decline in industrial chemistry took place. Only after the departure of the British did the chemical industry reaUy begin to flourish in India. 

---