History of Science in Early South Asia

Jacob Schmidt-Madsen, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Copenhagen (URL)
Phañjikā: An Early Cruciform Game at a Late Medieval Indian Court

The cruciform game of caupaṛ, adopted by the British as Ludo in the late 19th century, is often referred to as the national game of India. In the late 16th-century Ain-i-Akbari, the Mughal court historian Abul Fazl wrote that "[f]rom times of old, the people of Hindustan have been fond of this game." The question, however, remains as to how old those "times of old" actually were. The earliest certain references to the game are found in Bhakti poetry and Sufi romances from the late 15th and early 16th centuries, but now a hitherto unexplored chapter from the 12th-century Mānasollāsa adds new evidence. It reveals the existence of what appears to be an elaborate form of the game played at the court of King Someśvara III (r. 1127-38) of the Western Cāḷukya Empire.

This paper traces the early history of caupaṛ and engages with key passages from the chapter on phañjikā, or the game of five, in Mānasollāsa 5.16. It reconstructs the layout and rules of the game as far as possible, and discusses the clearly amorous purposes to which it was put. Phañjikā was primarily played by women and young boys to while away time in the palace, but when the king joined the game it took on the character of a lover's game. The same is true of caupaṛ in later textual and visual sources, thus further closing the gap between the two games.

Prof. Emeritus K. G. Zysk, University of Copenhagen (URL)
Topic: Mesopotamian and Indian Bird Omens
 
Abstract
This paper explores the relationship between bird omens that occur in both the Sanskrit Gārgīyajyotiṣa Aṅga 42 and the Akkadian Šumma Ālu and related Cuneiform tablets. After an overview of the Sanskrit omens and their source, the study proceeds to compare the Indian and Mesopotamian bird omens with special reference to the omens of the crow in an attempt to show that the Akkadian omens was the archetype of the Sanskrit omen verses. The paper concludes with a list of contents of Aṅga 42, followed by the Sanskrit text and translation of verses 6-29 on the crow. 

A. J. Misra, Marie Curie Fellow, University of Copenhagen (URL)

Persian Astronomy in Sanskrit: A Comparative Study of Mullā Farīd’s Zīj-i Shāh Jahānī and its Sanskrit Translation in Nityānanda’s Siddhāntasindhu
 
Abstract
Starting from the late medieval period of Indian history, Islamicate and Sanskrit astral sciences exchanged ideas in complex discourses shaped by the power struggles of language, culture, and identity. The practice of translation played a vital role in transporting science across the physical and mental realms of an ever-changing society. The present study begins by looking at the culture of translating astronomy in late-medieval and early-modern India. This provides the historical context to then examine the language with which Nityānanda, a seventeenth-century Hindu astronomer at the Mughal court of Emperor Shāh Jahān, translated into Sanskrit the Persian astronomical text of his Muslim colleague Mullā Farīd. Nityānanda's work is an example of how secular innovation and sacred tradition expressed themselves in Sanskrit astral sciences.
 
This article includes a comparative description of the contents in the second discourse of Mullā Farīd's Zīj-i Shāh Jahānī (c. 1629/30) and the second part of Nityānanda's Siddhantasindhu (c. early 1630s), along with a critical examination of the sixth chapter from both these works. The chapter-titles and the contents of the sixth chapter in Persian and Sanskrit are edited and translated into English for the very first time. The focus of this study is to highlight the linguistic (syntactic, semantic, and communicative) aspects in Nityānanda's Sanskrit translation of Mullā Farīd's Persian text. The mathematics of the chapter is discussed in a forthcoming publication. An indexed glossary of technical terms from the edited Persian and Sanskrit text is appended at the end of the work.
 
My paper on Persian Astronomy in Sanskrit is downloadable below.

• Presenter: Dagmar Wujastyk, University of Alberta
• Topic: Readings from the Kalyāṇakāraka of Ugrāditya (fl. ca. 800 CE), a Jain work on medicine and alchemy.
• Bibliography
  • Link to the Kalyāṇakāraka at Panditproject.org
  • Link to the pages to be read in this session.

• Presenter: Andrey Klebanov, Kyōto University
• Topic: Readings from the anonymous *Suśrutavyākhyā
• Files to be used during the reading session (I will also show them on screen):
  • Introductory notes;
  • Draft edition of the *Suśrutavyākhyā, Sū 15;
  • Structure of SS Sū 15 in the vulgate text;
  • Vulgate edition of the Suśṛutasaṃhitā, Sū 15, with the Nibandhasaṃgraha by Ḍalhaṇa.
• Further Bibliography and Links:
  • Klebanov, Andrey. “On the Textual History of the Suśrutasaṃhitā, (2): An Anonymous Commentary and Its Identified Citations.” In Body and Cosmos. Sudies in Early Indian Medical and Astral Sciences in Honor of Kenneth G. Zysk, edited by Toke Lindegaard Knudsen, Jacob Schmidt-Madsen, and Sara Speyer, 110–39. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2021. PDF,
  • Klebanov, Andrey. “On the Textual History of the Suśrutasaṃhitā (1): A Study of Three Nepalese Manuscripts.” eJournal of Indian Medicine 12, no. 1 (2021): 1–64, https://doi.org/10.21827/ejim.12.1.37385 (open access),
  • Suśrutasaṃhitā, Sū 15, e-text on SARIT,
  • Link to the Suśrutavyākhyā at PanditProject.

• Presenter: Dominik Wujastyk, University of Alberta
• Topic: Early Modern Eristic: Readings from the medical polemic Rogārogavāda by Vīreśvara
• Bibliography
  • Sanskrit text of the Rogārogavāda
  • Rogārogavāda entry at PanditProject
  • Wujastyk, Dominik. (2009) "Contrasting Examples of Ayurvedic Creativity around 1700", in Mathematics and Medicine In Sanskrit, ed. Dominik Wujastyk (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass), pp. 144–146. PDF
  • Wujastyk, D. (2009) "Post-classical Indian Traditions of Medical Debate and Argumentation". eJournal of Indian Medicine, 2(3), 67–81. nline at: https://ugp.rug.nl/eJIM/article/view/24721.

     

• Time-Buddy
•  Presenter: Dominik Wujastyk, University of Alberta
• Topic: Readings from Sanskrit alchemical literature.  The Rasendramaṅgala of Nāgārjuna Siddha
• Bibliography
  • Wujastyk, D. (1984). “An Alchemical Ghost: The Rasaratnākara by Nāgārjuna,” Ambix, 31: 70–83. DOI: 10.1179/amb.1984.31.2.70.    (PDF)
  • Unpublished survey of manuscripts.
  • Rasendramaṅgala at PanditProject
  • Interview on the Rasendramaṅgala with Jacqueline Hargreaves for the Ayuryog project (June 2020, 35 minutes).
  • Provisional critical edition of the text for reading in today's session. (It will also be shown on screen so you don't need to download this.)

• Time Buddy
• Presenter: Dominik Wujastyk, University of Alberta
• Topic: Readings from the anatomy of Caraka: Carakasaṃhitā, Śārīrasthāna 1
• Bibliography
  • Sanskrit text from Ācārya 1941 edition
  • Translation, Mehta 1949
  • Wujastyk, D. (2012). “The Path to Liberation through Yogic Mindfulness in Early Ayurveda.” (ed.) White D. G.Yoga in Practice, pp. 31–42. Princeton University Press.  (PDF)
• Some relevant websites:
  • Carakasaṃhitā at PanditProject (a database of authors, works and manuscripts)
  • Carakasaṃhitā Project at the University of Vienna (many useful resources related to the C.)
  • The Suśruta Project at the University of  Alberta (a recently-begun project on the Suśrutasaṃhitā)

• Time Buddy
• Continuing the program from the previous session (see "Past Meetings," below on this screen).

• Time Buddy
•  Continuing the program from the previous session.