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, periodic tables, 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, made metals, produced 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: "Di...
Rajeev Singh is Professor at the Department of Chemistry at Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College (ARSD), University of Delhi. He is an inorganic chemist with research specialization in Material Chemistry and Organometallics. He did his Ph. D. from the University of Delhi and was a TWAS postdoctoral fellow. His other area of academic interests are into revival, communication, and awareness of knowledge of ancient Indian sciences, IKS specially Chemistry and the contributions of Indian scientists.