Essay name: Alchemy in India and China
Author:
Vijaya Jayant Deshpande
Affiliation: Panjab University / Department of Chemistry
The thesis "Alchemy in India and China" explores the comparative aspects of alchemy in these two countries, focusing on chemical and protochemical formulations while addressing why modern science developed in the West rather than in India or China. It briefly touches upon internal alchemy in China and the ritualistic tantra in India.
Chapter 1 - Introduction to the history of Alchemy
11 (of 18)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
11
i.e., the final emancipation from material bondage. This
is achieved when the sum total of good and bad deeds, while
performing one's duties of this life, is positive. Again
these duties are the ones assigned by the law-giver to the
particular social group one belongs to. Brahmins was the
only learned community and for them by principle,
"austerity" was the highest virtue. Striving for the
attainment of wealth or other comforts, which could have
given an incentive for scientific research and technological
progress, was considered a sin. Thus the only social group
which was capable of intellectual exercise was totally
disinterested in mundane activities, being wholly involved
in religious, ritualistic matters with a transcendental
goal.
In Hindu society, excessive stress on social
harmony and also a social system in which profession was
hereditary resulted into a separation of hands and brain
which was disastrous for experimental science. The
dependence on intuition rather than on experimentation and
rational deduction was equally responsible. In P. C. Ray's
view, the separation of intellectuals and artisans made the
Indian soil intrinsically incapable of producing any
Kepler or Newton, Harvey or Boyle.
From the point of view of availability of source
material also the medieval period is the most suitable one.
