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Ancient Indian Scien...
Ancient Indian Scientific Thought and Modern Theories
An Overview by: Dhirendranath Banerjee , Sanjit Kumar SadhukhanThis volume bears testimony to the fact that Indian sages, philosophers and scholars had a grip on all the topics that the modern-day scientists deal with, including complicated surgery and quantum mechanics. Our Vedas, Upanisads and other literary works were the storehouse of scientific wisdom, though the prevailing socio-religious conditions impeded its widespread dissemination.
₹315.00
ISBN: 9789380829661
Year Of Publication: 2019
Edition: 1st
Pages : viii, 97p.
Language : English
Binding : Hardcover
Publisher: National Mission for Manuscripts
Size: 23
Weight: 350
The experiences and knowledge from our past are recorded in manuscripts which have been handed down to us over several thousand years. The Government of India, through the Department of Culture, took note of the importance of this vast tangible heritage and, in order to preserve and conserve as well as to make access to this wealth easy, established the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM). In order to disseminate the knowledge content of manuscripts, the Mission has taken up several programmes such as lectures, seminars and workshops. The Mission has published the proceedings of the above-said programmes under the following series: Samraksika (on conservation), Tattvabodha (comprising lectures based on manuscripts delivered by eminent scholars), Samiksika (research-oriented papers presented in the seminars), Krtibodha (transcribed and edited texts prepared at advanced level manuscriptology workshops conducted by NMM) and Prakasika (publication of rare, unpublished manuscripts).
Ancient Indian Scientific Thought and Modern Theories makes one revisit the development of Indian science and technology in varied fields since the Vedic period, and suggests that we have a living tradition which is vivid and dynamic, inheriting at the same time claiming freedom from the past. It is the proceedings of a three-day seminar held during 25-27 March 2017 in Kolkata, organized by the Sanskrit Sahitya Parishad, Kolkata, and sponsored by NMM. This volume bears testimony to the fact that Indian sages, philosophers and scholars had a grip on all the topics that the modern-day scientists deal with, including complicated surgery and quantum mechanics. Our Vedas, Upanisads and other literary works were the storehouse of scientific wisdom, though the prevailing socio-religious conditions impeded its widespread dissemination.
This volume is expected to invoke keen interest among all who wants to know about a scientific past that Indians inherit, be a scientist or a layman.
Foreword
Pratapanand Jha
1. Introduction
Dhirendranath Banerjee
Sanjit Kumar Sadhukhan
2. Inaugural Address: Freedom in ideas
Dilip Kumar Mohanta
3. Astrology versus Astronomy
Amalendu Bandhyopadhyay
4. scientifc Outlook in Ancient Indian Academic Tradition
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya
5. Ancient Indian Cosmology vis-a-vis Modern Scientific Cosmology
Dhirendranath Banerjee
6. The concept of Matter : A PhilosophyPhysics Interface
Raghunath Ghosh
7. Zero : An Eternal Enigma
Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay
8. Scientific Thoughts in Indian Philosophy
Sanjit Kumar Sadhukhan
9. The Asiatic Society and the Initiation of History of Science
Jagatpati Sarkar
10. Astronomical Manuscripts in Oriental Libraries of India: Ninth Century Onwards
Somenath Chatterjee
Contributors
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Sale!Atreyashiksha ₹720.00
Atreyashiksha is one of the Shiksha texts of the Krishna-Yajurveda, Taittiriya school. This text has been critically edited and translated consulting two palm-leaf manuscripts which are currently the only discovered manuscripts of this text in public libraries. Shiksha texts deal with phonetics and phonology of the Vedas and the method of proper pronunciation and recitation. The Atreyashiksha is well-structured in terms of arranging its topics of discussion.
When compared to the other Shikshas of the Taittiriya school, the Atreyashiksha, in keeping its focus on the discussion on the different methods of Vedic recitation, namely, word-reading (padapatha), sequential reading (kramapatha), tangled reading (jatapatha) and the five varieties of the reading of the phonic sequences (varnakramas), holds a unique position in the corpus of the Shiksha literature. A close reading of the text shows that the main aim of the text is to explain the practical aspects of the different ways of Vedic recitation, in whose connection it describes the theoretical elements of Shiksha too.
The book, therefore, serves as a practical guidebook to Vedic reciters who recite the above-mentioned readings of the Taittiriya Krishna-Yajurveda along with the continuous reading. While describing the methods of recitation, the Atreyashiksha gives enough emphasis on the theoretical nuances. The phonological rules, most of which are expressed in the Taittiriya Pratishakhya, are also illustrated in this text. This book consists of a detailed introduction, the critically edited text in Devanagari script, its Roman transliteration and an authentic English translation. -
Sale!Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali ₹180.00
Patanjali’s Yoga-sutra, one of the most well-known works in the Indian classical tradition, is recognised as the primary text of Yoga philosophy. Here, Dr. Bhaduri adopts a simple but unique approach in his study of the text to make it more suitable to the needs of the Indian students. This English translation of the Yoga-sutra by Dr. Bhaduri under the guidance of Prof. Kapil Kapoor in shastra Group of Centre of Liguistic and English, at Jawaharlal Nehru University, retains many Sanskrit terms, adding the English equivalents in footnotes and the glossary to avoid making inadequate renderings of Sanskrit technical terms. It translates only what is stated in the concerned sutras without elaborate commentaries in order not to confuse the reader and to allow him to draw independent conclusions. Presenting the sutras in original Sanskrit form along with their Roman transcription, it examines the Yoga philosophy in relation to the other five orthodox systems of classical Indian philosophy and analyses the manner in which it deals with issues of cognition and signification.
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Sale!Lalita-Sahasranama A Comprehensive Study of One Thousand Names of Lalita Maha-Tripurasundari ₹1,350.00
In the Hindu sacred literature, Sahasra-namas: the texts embodying literally “the Thousand Names” of a deity, constitute a genre in their own right. And Lalita-Sahasranama (LS) is a veritable classic in the traditional writings of the kind — a classic widely acknowledged for its lucidity, clarity and poetic excellence. A medieval work of unknown authorship eulogising Shakti: the Mother Goddess, this Sahasranama is not just a masterly exposition of Shri Lalita’s cult, but also sets out the deity’s diverse epithets — like, for instance, Kundalini, Nirguna, Saguna, Parashakti or Brahman — which continue to evoke reverence as mantras with ‘mystic powers’. Also included among these names are the goddess’s other panegyric descriptions that have come to have profound, esoteric connotations in tantric practices — epitomizing, thus, the fundamental tenets of tantrashastra. Here is a brilliant critical edition of Lalita-Sahasranama meticulously analysing, for the first time, each of Shri Lalita’s thousand names — by a variety of themes, like the Goddess’s conceptual representations, anthropomorphic forms, disposition, abodes, kinships/consorts, ritualistic worship, and her supremacy in pantheonic hierarchy. Also explaining and interpreting anew these thousand names on the basis of time-honoured commentaries, Dr. Joshi under-scores the high importance of Lalita-Sahasranama in philosophy, tantra, yoga, sahasranama literature, and rituals of various descriptions. The book includes the original Sanskrit text of LS, its romanised transliteration and, additionally, an Appendix listing Sri Lalita’s thousand names in the A-Z sequence.
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Sale!Chandogya Upanisad Translation and Commentary ₹1,215.00
Chandogya is the most intriguing of all the Upanishads. It begins with directing the priests of a Soma-yaga to see the hidden wisdom-significance in what they perform and recite as a brute ritual. This sublimating of ritualism gradually leads us to perceiving the entire life system as a yaj¤a held in and performed by Brahman. The next step this perception leads us to is “sarvam khalvidam brahma” (everything here indeed is Brahman). Then the enquiry as to what this Brahman is, begins. The answer we arrive at is “tat tvam asi” (That thou art). Finally we realize “atmaivedam sarvam” (atma indeed is everything here, or myself indeed is everything here). From this self-identity with “everything,” with Brahman, we never return to our identity with individuated forms pertaining to the world of becoming. The present commentary explicates in a lucid way how thinking progresses in this Upanishad, along with unravelling its schematic, structural and dialectical intricacies, both subjective and objective, both universal and particular.
