Engineering and Technology in Ancient India

Book excerpt: India is credited with highly advance knowledge system since ancient times. Vedas and post Vedic literature composed in Sanskrit has been the storehouse of various branches of knowledge on science, spirituality, philosophy, culture, civilization, economy, polity, law and management, ayurveda, yoga, pharmacy. This knowledge was documented from time to time and carried forward for future generations until the mass scale destruction of Sanskrit manuscripts to plunder and loot and devastation of libraries of Nalanda, Takshshila, Vikramshila and Ujjain. It is also a fact that intellectual tradition of India has been subjected to utter neglect and stagnation and so there is an absence of Indian accounts in academic texts of India. As such, there is an ardent need to initiate a process to unlock these systems of knowledge currently atrophied due to centuries of neglect and stagnation. In view of the above, the present study was undertaken. This work is a humble attempt to apprise the readers about the advancement of Engineering and Technology in Ancient India in various fields. Hope the students and scholars will find this books equally interesting and useful in their academics pursuits in Anceint Indian Civilizational Knowledge System.