The Indian Chemical Imagination-Part 1 How did Indians understand, transform and control matter before the modern science of chemistry emerged? When we hear the word chemistry , we immediately think of laboratories, test tubes, molecular structures, the periodic table, spectroscopy, and carefully controlled experiments. But chemistry, as a modern academic discipline, is relatively young. Human beings were transforming matter thousands of years before the word "chemistry" acquired its present meaning. They smelted ores, produced metals, made glass, prepared medicines, fermented food and beverages, extracted dyes, manufactured pigments, prepared perfumes, and developed methods to purify and transform substances. India was no exception. In fact, the Indian subcontinent possesses a remarkably long record of technological practices involving metals, minerals, ceramics, dyes, medicines, salts, fermentation and other materials. The important question, however, is not simply: ...
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