Science in Ancient India (Science of the Past)
Grade 4-8This attractive title begins with the great ancient cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa and a brief overview of Indian history. A chronology places the various empires and cultures in context but is somewhat confusing because time is noted in years ago rather than standard B.C.E. and A.D. notations. Succeeding chapters look at medicine, mathematics, astronomy, and physics, with an emphasis on how much Indian scientists and philosophers understood and practiced in these areas centuries before their counterparts in Western Europe. Theories and techniques of ayurveda (the science of long life), yoga, and surgery are related with quotes from the ancient writings describing them. Stewart pinpoints the earliest origins of our counting system in ancient India, citing later developments in higher math and an understanding of the Earths place in the universe and its nature as a spinning sphere as much as 1000 years before those ideas were accepted in the West. Indian scientists and mathematicians are named and quoted whenever possible, although the portraits provided among the full-color illustrations and reproductions are of Democritus, Hippocrates, Ptolemy, Kepler, etc. Overall, a useful and unique resource.Susan L. Rogers, Chestnut Hill Academy, PACopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.