विज्ञान सारथि: Vijnana-Sarathih (Science and Technology in Sanskrit Sastraic Traditions)

It would be really unjust to think that the Divine language Sanskrit is deprived of science & technological advancements and it illumines the grandeur only of poetry, rhetorics, philosophy and religion. Actually, the Sastraic traditions relating with Vedas & Vedangas branching out into the 18 & 64 vidyas was not only religious but also practically important for the technologies prevalent at that time in the society. Infact, in India religion and science co- existed with mutual support.

To-day we are living in a 'high-tech' age and it is the high time for all of us to take a stock of 'what we were in the past and what we are to-day in the field of scientific knowledge.' For this very purpose, Department of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit of Kurukshetra University organised a National seminar on the topic "Science and Technology in Sanskrit Sastraic Traditions."

In this seminar about 50 scholars from all over India, participated and presented their research papers on different themes of science. All the important research papers have been divided into seven sections which are as follows-

Sec. l-Aeronautics & Metallurgy
Sec. Il-Cornputer Science & Mathematics
Sec. Ill-Physics and Electronics
Sec. IV-Medical Science and Genetics
Sec. V-Different Healing Therapies in Sanskrit Sastras
See VI-Agriculture Science
See Vll-Miscellaneous

Foreword

India surely enjoys a place of pride as a cradle of abiding world cultures and civilizations. Its ancient literature, mostly rendered in Sanskrit, is extremely rich and original in philosophical thought. It is equally opulent in scientific enquiry. To be precise, ancient India was a knowledge society and a leader in many intellectual pursuits in the fields of mathematics, medicine, metaphysics, and astronomy. The Sanskrit Shastraic literature has been a copious repository of scientific and technological studies since the Vedic times. A notable feature of the scientific temper of those days was its integration with the spiritual and the cultural aspects of life. Thus was science and technology devoted to the nobler cause of human happiness.

It may well be perceived that sciences in our modem world are not born of a vacuum; they had already been there either in their rudimentary form or in their developed form in ancient and medieval India, Sanskrit Shastraic traditions abound in the knowledge of such subject as Astronomy, Astrology, Minerology, Atmospheric Science, Biological Sciences, Physical, Chemical and Medical Sciences and Aeronautical' Science.

Nonetheless, the fact remains that such vast knowledge has been neither full exploited nor full researched. The National Seminar on 'Science and Technology in Sanskrit Shastraic Traditions organized by the. Department of Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit of Kurukshetra University needs to be lauded as a serious attempt in this direction. The event, I learn, saw a confluence of Sanskrit Shastriac scholars and the scientists, who presented insightful discourses underscoring the unification of science and spirituality to advance human welfare. It is through such forums, I believe, that we shall be able to explore the full potential of our ancient wisdom and gamer it for the development of the society. "This is how we can succeed in establishing a link between our great past and our great future.

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