History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization: History of Agriculture in India (up to c.1200 AD) (Volume V Part I)

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The volumes of the Project of HISTORY OF SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY AND CULTURE IN INDIAN CIVILIZATION aim at discovering the main aspects of India's heritage and present them in an interrelated way. In spite of their unitary look, they recognize the difference between the areas of material civilization and those of ideational culture. The Project is executed by scholars with different ideological persuasions and methodological approaches and is marked by 'methodological pluralism'.

In spite of its primary historical character, this Project, both in its conceptualization and execution, has been shaped by many scholars drawn from different disciplines. It is for the first time that an endeavour of such a unique and comprehensive character has been undertaken to study critically a major world civilization like India.

History of Agriculture in India (up to c. 1200 AD), Part 1, reconstructs the evolution of agriculture in India up to c.1200 AD. It is a synthesis and summation of existing knowledge on the history of agriculture in ancient India on the combined bases of archaeological and literary sources against the backdrop of Asian history in general. Besides summing up the existing knowledge, it opens new vistas for further research on many debated issues in the history of agriculture in ancient India. The volume addresses the vexed and controversial questions on the origin, antiquity and sources of Indian agricultural history. Based on researches from sites of Vindhya, Ganga Region, plant remains, agricultural tools, pots, dental pathology, and settlement remains, it is an informed and highly researched work on the origin and antiquity of cultivation in India. For a historical study of agriculture, Pali, Sangam, Sanskrit and the Graeco-Roman literatures have been utilized. Art and literary sources have also been used to reconstruct the history.

D.P. CHATTOPADHYAYA has studied, researched on law, philosophy and history, and has taught at various universities in India, Asia, Europe and the USA from 1954 to 1994. Founder-Chairman of Indian Council of Philosophical Research (1981- 90) and President-cum-Chairman of Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (1984-91), Chattopadhyaya is currently the Project Director of the multidisciplinary 96-volume PHISPC and Chairman of CSC. Among his 35 books, of which he has authored 18 and edited 17, are Individuals and Societies; Individuals and Worlds; Sri Aurobindo and Karl Marx; Anthropology and Historiography of Science; Induction, Probability and Skepticism, Societies, Cultures and Ideologies. He has also held high public offices, namely, of Union Cabinet Minister and state governor. He is a Life Member of Russian Academy of Sciences and a Member of International Institute of Philosophy, Paris.

LALLANJI GOPAL was Head, Department of Indian Philosophy and Religion, B.H.U., 1970-71; Head, Department of Philosophy, B.H.U., 1971-73; Director, Centre of Advanced Study in Philosophy. B.H.U., 1971-73; Professor of A.I.H.C. & Archaeology, B.H.U., 1973-94; Head, Department of A.I.H.C. & Archaeology, B.H.U. 1966-67, 1973-77, 1979-81, 1983-85; Dean, Faculty of Arts, Banaras Hindu University, 1975-77, 1983-85, 1992-94; Rector and Acting Vice- Chancellor, B.H.U., December 1993-February, 1994. He has published very extensively on Indian Culture and Ancient Indian History.

V.C. SRIVASTAVA, formerly Director of Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla and Manindra Chandra Nandi Professor and Head of the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, was also a Deputy Coordinator of its UGC Special Assistance Programme. His publications include Hellenistic Sabhyata; Sun-Worship in Ancient India; The Samba Purana (Tr. In Hindi); Prehistoric Afghanistan: A Source Book; Protohistoric Afghanistan: A Source Book; Historical Probings in Afghanistan and Revision in Puranic Sun-cult. He is the editor of prestigious Indological journal Bharati. At present, he is UGC Professor Emeritus at University of Allahabad and also a member of Sashtri Indo-Canadian Institute. He was a member of General Assembly, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, New Delhi. He has been Visiting Professor at Kabul University and member of UNESCO-sponsored Centre of Kusan Studies at Kabul and a Visiting Fellow at several European and Asian universities.

It is understandable that man, shaped by Nature, would like to know Nature. The human ways of knowing Nature are evidently diverse, theoretical and practical, scientific and technological, artistic and spiritual. This diversity has, on scrutiny, been found to be neither exhaustive nor exclusive. The complexity of physical nature, life- world and, particularly, human mind is so enormous that it is futile to follow a single method for comprehending all the aspects of the world in which we are situated.

One need not feel bewildered by the variety and complexity of the worldly phenomena. After all, both from traditional wisdom and our daily experience, we know that our own nature is not quite alien to the structure of the world. Positively speaking, the elements and forces that are out there in the world are also present in our body- mind complex, enabling us to adjust ourselves to our environment. Not only the natural conditions but also the social conditions of life have instructive similarities between them. This is not to underrate in anyway the difference between the human ways of life all over the world. It is partly due to the variation in climatic conditions and partly due to the distinctness of production-related tradition, history and culture.

Three broad approaches are discernible in the works on historiography of civilization, comprising science and technology, art and architecture, social sciences and institutions. Firstly, some writers are primarily interested in discovering the general laws which govern all civilizations spread over different continents. They tend to underplay what they call the noisy local events of the external world and peculiarities of different languages, literatures and histories. Their accent is on the unity of Nature, the unity of science and the unity of mankind. The second group of writers, unlike the generalist or transcendentalist ones, attach primary importance to the distinctiveness of every culture. To these writers human freedom and creativity are extremely important and basic in character. Social institutions and the cultural articulations of human consciousness, they argue, are bound to be expressive of the concerned people's consciousness. By implication they tend to reject concepts like archetypal consciousness, universal mind and providential history. There is a third group of writers who offer a composite picture of civilizations, drawing elements both from their local as well as common characteristics. Every culture has its local roots and peculiarities. At the same time, it is pointed out that due to demographic migration and immigration over the centuries an element of compositeness emerges almost in every culture.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages