A Short History of Science and Technology in India

The need for "A HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY" is deeply felt for the under graduate student of History major and post graduate student in particular and aspiring for different competitive exams in general. According to new syllabus of D.U., this book has been written. This paper is newly introduced in the new syllabus as 604 (XIV paper) with the objective is to acquaint the students with the developments in Indian Science and Technology since early times in order to create in them an understanding of the country's contribution towards the growth of scientific research and technological developments in the world. A good number of books have been written about this topic in Assamese version but scarcity in English version. So I am trying to present the present topic in a book form to my best of my ability, entitled “A Short History of Science and Technology". To write this book, the author was directly or indirectly helped by the works of some famous Indian Historians, Researchers and writers like Dr. R.C.Mazumder, Dr.Ram Saran Sharma, Sir Jadu Nath Sarkar and so on. (A selected bibliography is given in the end for the convenience of readers.)

The book has been divided in to six (6) units and each unit also divided into some sub-units. Unit-I explain the scope and importance of Science and Technology. This unit also discussed the Development of Astronomy, Mathematic, Medicine, and Metallurgy and industries since the earliest time. Unit-II, discussed the development of science and technology in the Medieval period i.e. development of Agriculture, Astronomy and Mathematics, Medicine i.e. Ayurveda and Unani, etc. In Unit-III; explain how the science and technology developed during the reign of British or colony. Unit-IV, discussed the Indian response to Western Science. In this unit, the contribution of some Indian scientist and their role to develop the Indian science and technology also explained. Unit-V and Unit-VI, discussed the pre-colonial and colonial craft and technological development in Assam. I am very much grateful to all the learned authors whose writings enriched me and helped me in writing a few chapters in the book.< p> **Contents and Sample Pages**