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1Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 1: Introduction (Chandita Mukherjee) – Pad. ma
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3https://pad.ma/CFV/player
4https://pad.ma/CFV/player
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6Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 1: Introduction
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8Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:50:43; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 7. 890; Saturation: 0. 061; Lightness: 0. 358; Volume: 0. 254; Cuts per Minute: 6. 171; Words per Minute: 76. 756;
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10Summary: The episode sets up the intent of the films. We are introduced to the characters and narrators and understand the methods of knowing the past through material evidence. A glimpse of things to come, places to be visited and questions that will be explored are discussed. 
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12Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 1: Introduction
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14Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:50:43; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 7. 890; Saturation: 0. 061; Lightness: 0. 358; Volume: 0. 254; Cuts per Minute: 6. 171; Words per Minute: 76. 756;
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16Summary: The episode sets up the intent of the films. We are introduced to the characters and narrators and understand the methods of knowing the past through material evidence. A glimpse of things to come, places to be visited and questions that will be explored are discussed. 
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18Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 1: Introduction
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20Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit Duration: 00:50:43; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 7. 890; Saturation: 0. 061; Lightness: 0. 358; Volume: 0. 254; Cuts per Minute: 6. 171; Words per Minute: 76. 756 
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22Summary: The episode sets up the intent of the films. We are introduced to the characters and narrators and understand the methods of knowing the past through material evidence. A glimpse of things to come, places to be visited and questions that will be explored are discussed. 
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24Bhart ki Chhap: Episode 1
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26Humayun's Tomb
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28New Delhi
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301. Chandita Mukherjee annotates Bharat ki Chaap as the main director of the series on the choices and difficulties of making the television series. Inspired by the passage of the Haley’s comet across the cosmos, the series covers the history stretching from the Indus Valley Civilization (Harappa, Mohenjodaro) to the colonial and post-independent period in the Indian subcontinent. 
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32These annotations are compiled from three days of conversations and interview with Chandita Mukherjee. She draws from her extensive knowledge of the history science and technology in India, and also connects to the many changes and developments in India since then. The annotations include some of the details of how BKC was shot and edited, the actors who were part of the series, the political climate of that period. It also includes many stories and histories of science and technology in India that couldn’t be included in the series, and also gives more details and context to the stories that are included in the series, how they were shot, the research behind the series and the scientists, activists and other people interviewed for the series. 
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35You're about to see films of an unusual kind. How did it all begin?
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38About four years ago Chandita Mukherjee, a young filmmaker came to see me, all excited. Halley's Comet was  soon to appear - science was being much discussed, and many probes sent to explore the comet
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40She said: "Halley's Comet appears every 76 years. What was happening in our science when it last came? What were people thinking then? And when it came before that, and before that?"
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42For instance, when this tomb of Humayun was new? It was an exciting idea, to explore India's science and understand how people thought and lived. 
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44So after four years - of meeting many people, travelling all over the country, visiting libraries and museums, talking to archaelogists, scientists and historians - a great deal has been understood and learnt. The outcome is for you to judge. 
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462. Chandita: We were about to go on air and we felt a need that someone accessible should introduce the series to the audience, and say how important it is to explore the history of sciences in India. Professor Yashpal, as a scientist and someone who often spoke simply about sciences to children, was chosen, and he said it very well and convincingly. 
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48There's science, and culture, and fun - but you shall also have to put in some effort. Young people as well as old should enjoy these films
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50TV_talking heads
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52Let me add that seeing these films being made has taught me many things as well. We hope that films of this type will help in creating a new Indian identity - a truer sense of what we are, who we are Have we succeeded? Write to us, tell us what you think of this story about ourselves
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54Comet studio and base office; Mumbai
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56Comet studio and base office; Mumbai
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58What is Bharat ki Chhap? Chhap sounds like bidis, or incense sticks but these are thirteen films or a journey that beings with some questions. We'll discuss these later. 
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603. Actors/Characters in BKC
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62Along with the television series, BKC also produced a book in Hindi and English to be read along with the series. The BKC book includes written “autobiographies” for the characters in the series. In the series, these characters are drawn to science and history from different backgrounds and interests, often similar to the biography of the actors themselves. Some come from theater and politics, others were historians. Through the characters, we were trying to personalise the grand themes and events that BKC explores. 
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64Here we see the different characters being introduced. We start with Nissim. Played by Hemu Adhikari who was a scientist and biologist at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center. He was also a well-known Marathi Theatre actor. He was seen a lot in Marathi TV serials and features films, some Hindi feature films also. Of course left leaning in his outlook and part of People’s Science Movement. All this was included in his character. 
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66Nissim (Acted by Hemu Adhikari): I’ve always been interested in theatre. On several occassions I have also enacted as historical characters. Somewhere my personal philosophy to life, I think, is linked to my training and work as a historian and as a result I often place problems of a special kind. A young friend of mine saw these films and read parts of the manuscript of this book and making a face said, “Why are you giving so much importance to communalism?” According to him, its just another issue being used by some people just like unemployment is being exploited by drug peddlers and criminals who give work to young unemployed people. So it so happens that most of the articles that he has read are were concerned with issues of communlaism, regionalism, Indian identiyt and so on. But however on reflection, I think that this emphasis has to do with my being a historian. 
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68He continues to be associated with my organization, Comet Media Foundation, and now is currently the treasurer of its trust. 
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70<insert from scans from the book>
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72First, introductions. I'm Maitreyi, a researcher in computer science. I've also written science books for children. And Nissim  teached history at the university. He is also involved with Marathi theatre. Nissim and I will the anchorpeople, but four young reporters will take us on the journey
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74Then there is Maitreyi. Vasundhara Phadke played the character. She was a chemist by profession and she was working in a commercial company making pigments. She even registered two patents in the name of the company - one is of water soluble wax crayons for children and the other is fluorescent printing ink. People were telling her to pursue a PhD. During this time we met when I was shooting a film on disabled children in Pune. I was to meet the children coming into therapy at a hospital and also go to their homes, meet the parents and observe their other activities. So I needed a Marathi translator - her cousin at the hospital where I was shooting introduced us. We got on really well and she realised she loved the film-making process, but she returned to her job as a chemist. Then when Bharat ki Chhap started, she joined and started working with me. At that time she was an assistant director working on the script and the research. She also started editing for films. And then went on to create material for education. 
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76<Maitreyi scan>
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78Urmi Juvekar was an aspiring actor and she worked on this project and later went on to become a Hindi film script writer. She brings a great awareness and analytical thinking process to commercial films that sets her apart. She was also a child actor who worked with Sulabha Deshpande’s theatre group. She also acted in Shyam Benegal’s film Yatra. 
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80<Amrita scan>
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82- I'm Amrita Prasad. 
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84-You're from Calcutta?
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86We wanted people for a year of research, free to travel all over who'd find the project fun as well as educative. So we met many students and professionals. Finally we did video tests with a dozen people to see how friendly they appeared camera and how confident
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88“And when people put aside nation, religion, caste. . . ". Thus we selected T. Ramanathan. “Sit and discuss their problems together surely it's because of the impact of science. What, then, is science?”
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90Jayaram Tatachar was an NSD alumni. A very fine actor - he runs a theatre company in Mysore. He has acted in quite a few Kannada and Malayalam feature films. <T. Ramanathan scan>
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92Ramanathan has studied psychology and chemistry. For four years he's been correspondent for a science magazine in Madras. He felt this project would give him experience of another kind of journalism. 
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94Amrita Prasad has an MA in comparative literature from Jadavpur University. The youngest reporter, she's studied science only till school, and then she found it very boring! But now she feels her education was incomplete
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96Comet studio and base office; Mumbai
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98These people who've agreed to travel about for a year, have they no  other work? They do, Aunty, but this too is work! In fact,I'm the only one straight from university
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100Shehnaaz is a lecturer in microbiology - she's taken a year's leave from college to do this. Ranjan's a civil engineer, doing his doctorate. 
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102Then there is Anniruddha Limaye. He had an MBA and worked at the Taj. He decided he didn’t want to be a manager anymore. After BKC, he went to make some documentary films. Now he has returned to management. 
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104<Ranjan scan>
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106Ranjan Pradhan was looking for a break from studies. He felt our project might help him decide what to do next
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108Comet studio and base office; Mumbai
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110Shehnaaz Khan lectures in microbiology. She's also active in people's science movement. Maitreyi knows her well. But Shehnaaz is so busy, we never thought she'd join. However, she was thrilled!
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112Sohaila Kapur was a journalist in the Times of India. She was the assistant editor of Femina. She wanted to start travelling and came on board with us. She now appears on Lok Sabha TV where she moderates a talk show. 
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114<shahnaz scan>
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116Women developed so many techniques – pottery! -Yes, and agriculture – MedicineBut once these began to have an impact, women lost control over them. That's what almost always happens. And not only women, men too are among the losers. The question is, why don't the benefits of technology reach all sections of society? We must keep these issues in mind as we're making films on the history of science. - Precisely
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118Then there is Raghu played by Shiv Subramaniam. He is a Bombay English Theatre actor. Subsequent to these series he worked in Bombay commercial cinema. 
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120We used the characters and their questioning to bring out the many connections between history and science. The characters were our device to make our questions and confusions known – Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? We can only shape our future if we know our past… These sort of thoughts are repeated again and again. 
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122This questioning had to be done also because education in the Indian context has been about rote-learning, so the method of the series as questioning received knowledge was not entirely familiar. Since an integrated approach to knowledge doesn’t exist in our society and certainly didn’t thirty years ago, we really struggled to establish these connections between our roots, who we are and the future. The metaphor of a journey metaphor is another important part of the form of BKC. It in fact borrows from other books about science; Jules Verne did it in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, and there have been others too. These journeys are about the protagonist getting shaped by the journey, connecting things and gaining knowledge along the way. 
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124Comet studio and base office; Mumbai
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126We were discussing our title. Simply put, these are films about our history and we particularly want to know what was happening in science in different ages. 
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1283 (continued). The series projects back on the history of science and technology, but as the title suggests the idea of ‘Bharat’ was taken as a given. We didn’t think of this as a strategy at the time. People with a general commitment for the left and making the world a more equitable place, were simpler (or less critical) in their formulations and they thought also that things would change in the country. And that didn’t happen. The idea of class struggle and so on were perhaps naïve and uni-dimensional, not taking into account many other aspects of society. 
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130We thought then “expose the godman and the godman is dead”. But it doesn’t happen like that. This kind of nationalism that you see in BKC is part of that same naiveté and simple-ness. Things have changed a lot since then, but I wouldn’t say that I have become cynical. I still think it’s possible for the world to change. 
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132For we want to understand - Where have we Indians come from? How did we get here? Where do we want to go, and where are we going? What are those signs by which we're known? Who are we? So it's a question of our identity, therefore, chhap, or imprint
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134This search will take us to many places and many ages. We'll sing, too, when we feel like it! And talk of things that concern us all. We hope these films will help us talk to as many people as possible
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1363 (continued). One thing that the history of science shows us is that whether its communalism or patriarchy or racism science cannot alone do anything to anything to tackle these issues. Science can infact be moulded and used by a tool by such forces as in NAzi Germany or as reflected by the image of women created by modern socio-biology or in the racism that is latent in all of the 19th century European biology. So history shows that unless science aligns with progressive trends in society it cannot become an instrument of liberation, in fact it can act to the contrary. The biggest impediment to the study of history has been the sectarian outlook of historians - be it the history of society or the history of science. 
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138As makers of the series, we were aware of the different positions around science and used the characters to portray these – those who align scientific thinking with progressive thinking, those who are obsessed with India’s contribution to science, and so on. For instance, the character Amrita (played by Urmi Juvekar) is obsessed with Indian identity and sciences. 
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140In the BKC book, the essays by the six characters is the journey they take after the series ends. 
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142History is obviously related to the present. Especially in India, where so much in our society has its roots in the past. So it should be clear that to know our present we must understand our past or we'll be stepping into the future blindfolded. Already, there are blindfolds over our eyes that we have to remove one by one
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1445. We have to remove the blindfold by knowing our past - this is the stated ideology. It does seem pedagogic now, which is a mode that is no longer popular. 
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146Thus our interest in history. But why science? What role has it played in shaping us? For one, the kind of research done in Europe on the history of science has not been done here. This creates the impression that we have had nothing to do with science. As a result, some western scholars, and many of us, too, believe that India was and is a great 'spiritual' nation, and we're even proud of this 'heritage'. But this picture is incomplete, and false. We believe enquiries into our scientific past will bring us closer to the truth. 
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1484. We needed characters who were just people struggling, researching, exploring along with us who were making the series. It came together all at once we need these characters rather than people who knew it all, like scientists and experts. They had a range of backgrounds - one is historian, someone is a Computer Engineer, and they keep asking each other questions and growing together as the series progresses. There was a lot of discussion about whether to have it based on themes or in linear progression. We also decided to make a montage of different forms so acting, singing, dancing and folk forms being performed by people in the place we went to. 
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150We used visuals drawn from the architectural monuments we visited, like the figurines in Sanchi railing. This is where we found the story of Jeevak. Similarly we used all the visual sources that were emanating from all the historical stuff we were reading and understanding. We decided to have a song in every episode in different costumes. (We even have a song of the songs - that tells the history of science in India in song format. ) Sometimes stylised and sometimes not, sometime speaking in the Brechtian style, sometimes we used various folk forms like Lavani, Garba as well. We thought we would do a lot of animation but it was expensive and cumbersome in those days. 
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152Many think of science as a modern, western phenomenon. But science has always been present, everywhere. As when humans learned to make fire, to domesticate wild animals, to build houses of bricks. 
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1546. Around the same time, Shyam Benegal’s Bharat Ek Khoj was also telecast, and the names sound similar which often confused by people to this day. But these are actually different works. There was also Mahabharata on TV on at the same time. 
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156In retrospect one realizes that the Mahabharat telecast then with the script penned by Rahi Masoom Raza was well written and superior to the version produced now. 
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158But it was the telecast of Ramayana and Mahabharata on TV in the late 80s that fuelled Hindutva. It was effectively used to create popular support because these tales were retold in a graphic and extended fashion and fueled communal feelings. I wouldn’t say the makers were thinking like that but this could be the impact it had…
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160Returning to the similarity to Bharat Ek Khoj and BKC, Benegal also used dramatization and quoted from famous works of literature but the scale of that series is totally different. His series was big budget, big actors, actual sets, and ours was relatively low budget. BKC stretched out for 4-5 years but in total cost about 104 lakhs (1,04,00,000 INR or over 1 crore). Even in those days this was unthinkable. The wage was 100 rupees a day for everyone on set including me. The crew really did it for the fun and experience of it, for an experience that would stay with them for the rest of their lives. 
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162Whenever I meet any of the people involved, they all say that watching the series as a whole was very important for them. A milestone. 
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164Advances in science were made here, as elsewhere, but to what extent? It's a popular misconception that from the start, our shastras have contained all the scientific knowledge in the world. But such claims are without proof. The ancients imagine many things that give rise to legends, which are part of us. But if we believe that thousands of years ago our ancestors had airplanes and atom bombs, this results in false notions about ourselves. We find no remains of such things
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166Instead, evidence reveals that 6 – 7,000 years ago, people here lived by hunting and gathering food. Here, too, they learned to make stone tools, and to use fire. Thus science and technology moved ahead. That was the Stone Age, the start of  our journey through the Indus civilization, the Vedic age, the Deccan caves and southern states, the exchange with the Arab world and the coming of the Afghans and Turks, the Mughal period and the British raj,to the present. We'll see how medicine, astronomy, mathematics grew and observe the techniques of craftsmen. This time, we'll give you an idea of our methods
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1689. This is not to say that there wasn’t anti-national discourse at the time. The emergency had happened almost ten or more years before, but news of the atrocities in Nagaland and Kashmir and other places were not yet so much a part of the general discourse. 
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170People who were part of progressive circles and also through news, generally it was known that incidents were taking place, such as attacks on people in Bastar, attacks on Dalit people, villages and hamlets. Though the direct linkage of the State to these was probably not so visible at that time. We were not so naive to think that the State was great!
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172I don’t think you should mistake that nationalism in BKC for Stateism. And another criticism that people sometimes make is that “Oh you are supporting monumentalist science!”. I don’t think so. We are not saying that the Bhakra Dam is the greatest thing in history. We are quite critical of things that cause damage to the environment and cause inequity among people, such as driving tribal people out of their homelands. There is criticism of some of these projects in the series. 
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174We also did not have to deal with as much direction and censorship. This sponsor driven script that is so common now was not the case in the circumstances in which this project was funded. Although the sponsors were Department of Science and Technology, officials weren’t coming and checking the script before shooting. 
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176This was perhaps unique to BKC, unlike other programs that were produced for the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. There they would check on everything from script to production. Department of Space Technology is a research based organisation where people are funded to try out things. It was Dr. Narasimha Roddam who once said to me we build iron walls so that within those iron walls you can play; that they will explain to the members of Parliament and the Government that this playpen is necessary otherwise no ideas will come. It was that kind of respect for experimentation which went into conceiving and producing BKC. 
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178Multiple locations
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180Multiple locations
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18210. BKC had an advisory committee headed by Professor Yashpal, including Irfan Habib, Asiya Siddiqui and the then Director of Doordarshan at the time (they would change). We would read our scripts to them. They would advise us on exploring more things and understanding subjects in depth but no censoring on their end. 
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184Let's all go together on this journey of discoveryAnd bring alive past ages, bring them aliveLet's all go together on this journey of discoveryThe road is long and difficultUnfamiliar, unknownMystery and thrills, new experiencesLet's pause at each experienceKnowledge and science grew, society wore new coloursAs the times changed each turn was newLet's pause at every turnA little hope, curiosity, imagination, interestThese are the means but the thoughts are newLet's pause at every thoughtLet's all go together on this journey of discovery
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18611. The songs were evolved in group discussions. The people who wrote the lyrics of the songs were Rana Sahri, A. V. Ramamurthy and Prakash Hindustani. They gave shape to the lyrics shape, the wordplay and the fun comes from them. Smriti, of course was very important in writing the songs. She does all the rhymes that are in the English subtitles. 
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188Comet studio and base office; Mumbai
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190So we all want to bring the past alive. But how? Today newspapers and books record all that happens, all that people do or think, but written records grow rarer as we go back in time. 
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192Yet every age, generation, society, leaves marks - bits of pottery, bones, toys, huge temples too. Many such things are found buried in the ground. Take the recent excavations at Inamgaon, near Pune. Ranjan and Shehnaaz will show us how people there lived, 3,000 years ago
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194Many ways of determining the age of objects found in excavations are known to modern science. The commonest is radiocarbon datingWe'll learn its principle and see how it's done. Methods like excavating or carbon-dating are useful even where written records exist. How else do we tell whether the records are truthful?
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196We spoke, earlier, of our identity, of the links between past and present. We all have mental images of the past, however hazy Often, these are a mix of history and legend
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198My name is Amrita Prasad. I've always been intrigues by the relationship between legends and reality. While doing my Masters in comparative literature, I read mythological tales from many countries. Questions arose – about their origins, about how much was true, how much poetic imagination. Did the Lanka war with monkey brigade helping Rama really occur? Or did a poet perceive larger issues of his time in a tiny battle and exaggerate the event? Where does one find the answers?
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200Allahabad fort; Allahabad
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20212. Amrita talks about myth and reality, and this is a running thread that she pursues through the series. As a student of literature, she looks for the connections in the literary texts and in the archaeological records. 
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20413. The series often overlaps with mythological accounts but no one objected to our use of the texts Ramayana and Mahabharat, or other texts. We never denigrated any of the myths and legends. We have really tried to see the basis on which these stories are created. We see the pottery from the small hamlet of Ayodhya, not the luxurious standards we are made to imagine from the myths. 
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20613. The series often overlaps with mythological accounts but no one objected to our use of the texts Ramayana and Mahabharat, or other texts. We never denigrated any of the myths and legends. We have really tried to see the basis on which these stories are created. We see the pottery from the small hamlet of Ayodhya, not the luxurious standards we are made to imagine from the myths. 
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208Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla; Shimla
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210Ramanathan had read an article about excavations by Prof B B Lal at places mentioned in the epics. We went to meet him at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. 
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212Amrita: How did you decide where to dig? Prof: Places mentioned in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata still have the same names, and the same locations as in the epics. The Mahabharata says that Hastinapur, the Kaurava capital, was on the banks of the Ganga. Today's Hastinapur is also on the banks of the Ganga! Mathura, Kurukshetra and other places associated with the Mahabahrata have also had these names for generations. So the selection of sites to dig at was simple. Similarly for the Ramayana. In the story, King Dashrath's capital, Ayodhya, was on the banks of the Saryu, where it is today. When Rama was banished, he crossed there rivers and reached Shringaverpur. Here Guha, the Nishad chief, ferried him across the Ganga. From here he went to Bhardwaj Ashram then across the Jamuna to Chitrakoot. Amrita: What did you find when you dug at these sites?Prof: Exacavations at the Mahabharata sites revealed, in the lowest levels, the remnants of a particular culture, a typical grey pottery painted with black motifs. A:May I see? Prof:Certainly!
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214At the National Museum in Delhi we were to see more examples of this pottery. Every ancient civilization has its characteristic pottery. Pottery finds in digs thus help us know the age of other objects found alongside. 
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216Prof Lal told us that the oldest objects found at Mahabharata sites go back to 900 BC. Amrita: How did you date the Ramayana sites?Prof: Come, let me show you. A: His tabletop display showed the place where each object was found, and in which level of excavation. 
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218The oldest finds at Ayodhya were bits of polished black pottery. There were no signs of habitation below this. 
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220At Bhardwaj Ashram, he found Gupta period artefacts. Below these, nothing, till 700 BC. Then the same black pottery. Again, below that, no habitation. 
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222Only Shringaverpur had signs of habitation prior to 700 BC, marked by crude pottery. Thus it was proved that the oldest common level of habitation at these sites was 700BC. 
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224Prof: Clearly, then, the events of the Ramayana cannot be older than that. 
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226Ramanathan: I have a question, Prof Lal
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228Prof: Yes?
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230Ramanathan: Your proofs show that even in the events of the epics really took place the Mahabharata sites are older than the Ramayana sites. But tradition claims that Rama was earlier than Krishna!
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232Prof: Well, tradition says Rama belongs to the treta age, and Krishna to the dvapar age - with lakhs of years intervening. But archaeological proofs show that none of this could have happened more than 3,000 years ago. 
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234Amrita: Yet people don't easily accept ideas contrary to their religious beliefs. Were most people convinced?
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236Prof: Many were. To them, their faith was a thing apart from history. Some people still don't agree, but the proofs are sold and unambiguous - how can they be ignored?
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238Inamgaon, Shirur Taluka, Pune District, Maharashtra
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24014. Bastar is an important region that we look at especially in the beginning part of the BKC series. Bastar had not seen any kind of industrialisation, there were no roads or highways or telephone lines. In some remote parts of Bastar they live as they would have 500-600 years ago. People were so confident in their culture. The money economy had not taken over at all. 
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242I'm Ranjan Pradhan, at Inamgaon near Pune. Archaeologists from Deccan College have been excavating here for some years. On this spot stood a circular hut. The artefacts found here are 2,500 years old. And this is only the topmost level. Analysis of these objects helps us know more about those people. Archaeologists are trying to reconstruct what these huts looked like. These holes must have held wooden posts. 
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24415. We were on average 20-25 people on each trip. In 1985, we started writing on the research, then in March 1986 we were given an ultimatum by our funders to show work. 
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246We went and shot a version of Episode 3 (Harappan Civilization) and Episode 1 (The introduction). We had to get it pre-tested. Dr. S. R. Joshi from ISRO went around the country, showed it to students and interviewed them. Their report was to be kept in mind when making further episodes. One of the recommendations of Dr. Joshi was to make half hour episodes - it will be lighter and easier to grasp. The team was against that and continued with 50 minute episodes. 
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248There was also a lot of decision to chapterise the series, how would we divide it? Initially we divided it by topics like Agriculture, Transport, etc. Some things would be reiterated and would be a kind of swimming across of 7000 years of history. But it was all too much to encompass in thirteen overarching themes and it was decided that it was better to go by time period. 
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250So the rest of 1986 we worked on getting the two episodes ready, with pre-testing and getting further with the script. By December of 1986 we went and shot Episode 2 and 4. Then in 1987 we did episode 5,6 and 7. Then in 1988, we did Episode 8, 9, 10. And then broadcast time was approaching in April of 1989. And it was the January of ‘89 and in a mad dash we finished Episode 11, 12 and 13. After that we gave it a bit of a break. This is when moved out of Nehru Centre to the office on Lamington Road. 
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252Many animal bones have been found – cow, goat, blackbuck, sambar, deer. So these people lived in small, circular huts and ate meat – that is all we might have known about Inamgaon, if they hadn't dug deeper. 
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25416. Language: We already had done it in Hindi, and subtitles were in English and we went on to do 7 more language versions – Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam. This meant dubbing of all the 6 characters and songs had to be written and recorded in all languages. And we had to find singers to match the actors. That went on till 1994. So in all about 8-9 years went into doing language versions as well. 
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256As they dug older levels of habitation were uncovered going back to some thirty generations, or 700 years, before the time of the circular huts. The remains of a wall show that these houses were big and rectangular. 
257
25817. The crew would be 4 actors, cameraperson, their assistants, sound person, lighting crew with 3-4 lightboys, along with us on the scripting and direction side. It would be about 20-22 people, if some experts were coming along with us. We tried to use the winter months for travel and outdoor work and the summer months for indoor shooting and editing. The work process had to be convivial. The trips would last 60-70 days at times and we travelled all over, since all the episodes had to have a pan-India character. Many episodes had developments happening simultaneously across country. 
259
260We would try to economize by shooting parts of future episodes on one trip. Much of the anticipatory shots are just long shots. Dramatized scenes have to be intensely in their own flow of the particular episode. 
261
262-What have you found?
263
264-Some beads
265
266The excavations revealed that in those 700 years, life at Inamgaon had changed considerably. The objects found here might tell us how. 
267
268Inamgaon, Shirur Taluka, Pune District, Maharashtra
269
270I'm Shehnaaz Khan, at Deccan College, Pune. This model is based on the find at Inamgaon. Ranjan showed you this topmost level which was 2,500 years old. The huts of that period probably looked like this. 
271
272Life in the earlier levels was quite different. These long, rectangular houses had many rooms,  whose inhabitants have left behind things that give us glimpses into their lives. 
273
274Grains of wheat, barley, moong, peas, gram, and well-made pottery. The people who made such fine pots must have been fairly prosperous. Such fine craftsmanship and good agriculture! What led it to decline?
275
276Deccan College, Pune
277
278Shehnaaz: Ranjan and I met Prof M K Dhavalikar of Deccan College, who excavated Inamgaon. Ranjan: Why did agriculture in Inamgaon decline?Prof. Dhavalikar: Around 1,000 BC, the world climate was changing. Europe has an ice age. And when the polar regions freeze over, there is drought in our part of the world, as evaporation from the oceans goes down. Shehnaaz: Affecting the rain cycle! So Inamgaon, too, must have faced drought?Prof. Dhavalikar: Yes, and the drought led many to migrate southwards, in search of better climates. But the people of Inamgaon stayed on, learning to adapt to the new environment - as you saw at the site. Ranjan: But why did their houses go from rectangular to round?Prof. Dhavalikar: As the climate changed people must gradually have realised that circular huts withstood the strong winds better. Even today, in places like Rajasthan which have higher velocity winds people build  circular huts, so that the winds are deflected around the circular shape. 
279
280The commonest method of finding out the age of excavate objects is radiocarbon dating. Only the remains of living can be carbon-dated -wood, bones, charred grains etc. Objects found alongside – pots, beads, tools, cannot be carbon-dated as they non-living. 
281
282Carbon is basic to all life on earth - part of micro-organisms, humans, plants. Carbon has two isotopes - Carbon 12 and Carbon 14. C14 is radioactive and there is much less of it than C12. In every living thing, C12 and C14 exist in a fixed ratio. The exchange of carbon with the atmosphere keeps this radio constant. When an organism dies, the exchange of carbon ceases. Will the C12 to C14 ratio remain the same? No
283
284C14, like all radioactive substances, diminishes at a fixed rate while C12 is constant. The number of C14 atoms in any substance is halved every 5,730 years, and further halved after another 5,730 years. This time span is known as the half-life of C14. And as this is neither lakhs of years long nor a few mintues brief, it is ideal for dating excavated objects. 
285
286Thus, compared to the bone of a living creature, a dug-up bone will have fewer C14 atoms, and these atoms can be counted. We know the ratio of C12 to C14 in living organisms. This ratio will vary in the dug-up bone and that is how we can tell its age. Thus we can date not only bones, but the remains of all living organisms, such as grains etc. And from the age of these remains, we can infer the age of other objects found alongside. 
287
288Recently Shehnaaz went to Ahmedabad where, at the Physical Research Laboratory, radiocarbon dating is done. She met Prof D P Agrawal. 
289
290Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad; Ahmedabad
291
292Radiocarbon dating is very simple in principle, but requires care. The problems begin as soon as the sample is found, while digging. If we find, say, a piece of wood, or coal, it could be contaminated by carbon from some present-day source. And then we would be counting the wrong atoms. So the sample is first cleaned by hand, and then the other chemical processes follow. 
293
294Dr. Agarwal: This sample is from the ancient copper mines in Khetri. Shehnaaz: What is the significance?Dr. Agarwal: We used to think the mines were just 400 years old - the problem was, where did the Indus Valley people get their copper from? We assumed they were using the same copper, but we had no proof. Now for the first time we'll know whether these mines go back to the Indus Vallery period
295
296Dr Agarwal: Now our sample's in the counter – let's check. Shehnaaz: Can you guess its age?Dr Agarwal: We need forty hours for an accurate figure, but a few minutes can give us a rough estimate. It seem to be more than 3,000 years old. Shehnaaz: So it goes back to Harappan times?Dr Agarwal: Well, it could, but we'll have to wait and see!
297
298Shehnaaz: Won't Ranjan's parents be fed up with our noise?Maitreyi: They're not in Bombay, I think. 1407 – this way. Where are Nissim and Amrita?Ranjan: They should be here any minute nowShehnaaz: Mmm. . . what's cooking?Ranjan: You'll see!
299
300photo reference
301
302The episode sets up the intent of the series. We are introduced to the characters and narrators and understand the methods of knowing the past through material evidence. A glimpse of things to come, places to be visited and questions that will be explored are discussed. 
303
304Amrita: The others must be here?
305
306Nissim: Perhaps. Are your photographs in here?
307
308Amrita: Yes, and I bought that road map yesterday. 
309
310Ranjan: I've seen Inamgaon-type round huts in Kutch too. 
311
312Maitreyi: Isn't the climate similar, with strong winds? Actually, so many techniques still survive. They can tell us how people worked, ate, lived. 
313
314Shehnaaz: We can keep that in mind as we travel all over. For example, so much in the daily lives of tribals has not changed since the Stone Age. As in the Northeast. Those are Tripura pictures. Nissim: Very nice
315
316Shehnaaz: Or we could go to Bastar. . . 
317
318Shehnaaz: . . . where, even today, it's the women who gather food from the forests. That's how women all over the world are supposed to have discovered agriculture. 
319
320Ranjan: Isn't it somewhere in Bastar that they practise an old iron-smelting technique? We should explore that. 
321
322Amrita: Besides techniques, sciences like ayurveda still survive. We should try and visit an ayurvedic hospital. 
323
324Maitreyi: Ranjan, hadn't you gone to Pune again? How was it?
325
326Ranjan: Quite interesting. The best part was that someone at Deccan College can make stone tools!
327
328Amrita: So we'll travel all over India!
329
330Ranjan: Kashmir to Kanyakumari!
331
332Nissim: And on your journeys you can talk to people everywhere and ask them what they know of history and what their everyday problems are. Instead of viewing history as apart from the present, we can look for links with today's situation. Amrita: So we'll talk not only to experts, but others too. 
333
334Ranjan: But how do we meet people from past? How to present the Harappan age?Nissim: We can't go to Harappa or Mohenjodaro, but photographs of excavations surely exist?
335
336photo reference
337
338The episode sets up the intent of the series. We are introduced to the characters and narrators and understand the methods of knowing the past through material evidence. A glimpse of things to come, places to be visited and questions that will be explored are discussed. 
339
340Maitreyi: And we can go to Lothal and KalibanganShehnaaz: Museums! They must contain objects from every period. They can tell us so much. Amrita: Looking at museum objects, we can use our imagination. And when we reach the age of ancient manuscripts, we can enact stories from them!Ranjan: I leave acting to the rest of you – count me out!
341
342The Arthashastra, Manusmriti, Jataka tales old manuscripts exist in some libraries like the Saraswathi Mahal Library in Thanjavur. 
343
344Amrita: What's that temple in Thanjavur?Shehnaaz: BrihadeshwaraRanjan: When we come to architecture that could be an example of the southern style. 
345
346Maitreyi: Later we can show how the arch and dome revived our stagnant architecture. Ranjan: The Gol Gumbaz, the Fatehpur Sikri, are as much expressions of our culture as Sanchi or Konarak. 
347
348Nissim: We'll see many occasions to speak of unity. We can emphasis that Tipu Sultan was one of our first nationalists. Ranjan: But how is all this related to science?Shehnaaz: Of course it is! If we look at our history this way, it may dispel some misconceptions. Maitreyi: And the way people think is directly linked to science. Take Buddhism - it had such an impact that trade grew, society became more open. Medicine was taught at universities like Nalanda. This atmosphere helped science. Nissim: But in a society full of discrimination and restrictions, to ask questions or think in new ways is difficult. And, in our past, this has often been the case. That reminds me! I got a letter from Ramanathan. Shehnaaz: When does he return?Nissim: In a week or two
349
350Comet studio and base office; Mumbai
351
352It's from Guwahati. He writes -My tour with the enivornment study group is almost over. We've been to many areas, met many people. Remember the day all of us talked of science as a medium that could change our thinking? That if science reached every home, superstition would end, ideas of democracy take root? But I've seen . . . how, even if lives are changing, ways of thinking do not. Development schemes rarely touch the heart or mind. The benefits of technology, where visible – electricity, or new seeds or irrigation – are like things given without asking people what they want. And the people feel they have no right to say whether a given scheme will benefit or harm them. When we raise such issues, we get the same reply - ”Sir, you tell us. What can we say?” We say it concerns them, they should discuss things. They say they have no such tradition – it's all fate
353
354Ranjan: Who decides what tradition is? People say sati is a tradition, don't criticize it. Caste and untouchability are traditions. But these 'traditions' were started by people like us, after all. Shehnaaz: And we can choose what traditions to keep, what to leave behind. Maitreyi: Yes, we're not denying our history. There's much to be proud of. Amrita: The work of scientists like Aryabhata, Bhaskara, then ayurveda. Shehnaaz: The craft of our potters, sculptors and weaversRanjan: The famers who grew such a range of crops!Nissim: So we'll keep an open mind - We'll speak with pride or be critical, as necessary. Amrita: “The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!” But truly we believe such odd things! I was in a taxi chatting with the driver about the country, science. He said, “What's the use of computers? Life was better in the old days"
355
356In our country, in the time of the rishi-saints, rivers flowed with milk. But today? So many died in Bhopal. What sort of age is this? Milk and ghee were cheap in the old days. People were so happy!
357
35818. 
359
360Q: Do you think that the scientific mode of thinking that DST afforded with what you called the “playpen” - where you did things pre-testing, where you were experimenting? Do you think you absorbed their ways of working? Did it perhaps shape your methods of film-making?
361
362Today there is no limit to shooting of video imagery. We were very limited to the medium of celluloid. We couldn’t just keep on exploring something that was interesting. That method of working with celluloid female necessitated a kind of deliberateness that is not required today. We certainly couldn’t do then do the kind of animations we do today very routinely. 
363
364Nissim: True, milk is expensive, there are many problems. I'm sure he reads the paper, watches TV - he knows about today, but is confused about history. Shehnaaz: An event like Bhopal makes him condemn technology. Maitreyi: Granted these are troubled times. But if we wish to change things, we must first know the truth. How else can we lay the basis of our future?Ranjan: Take social reformers of the nineteenth century, or Gandhi and Bhagat Singh in the twentieth century. They stressed the need to know the truth, read history, tried to understand their times. Abolish sati, prevent child marriages -Shehnaaz: Allow widow remarriage!Maitreyi: Give women the right to education!Amrita: Treat the 'untouchables' as people of God!Nissim: Quit India! These slogans didn't work on their own. Those who desired reform took pains to comprehend and explain their culture and history. 
365
366Gorai Beach, Mumbai
367
368We aren't reformers, we're just making films - and films can't really change the world! But in talking of the past we'll insist on proofs and we'll ask not only what happened in science or history, but also how and why. That is the method of science!
369----------------------------------------
370Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 2: The Stone Age (Chandita Mukherjee) – Pad. ma
371
372https://pad.ma/CFW/player/" 
373
374https://pad.ma/CFW/player/
375Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 2: The Stone Age
376
377Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:50:44; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 31. 036; Saturation: 0. 094; Lightness: 0. 323; Volume: 0. 291; Cuts per Minute: 7. 764; Words per Minute: 70. 704;
378
379Summary: This episode captures the life in the Stone Age. We look at stone tool-making, investigate food gathering in pre-historic times through the habits of Halbi tribals in Bastar and travel to Buzahom in Kashmir to understand beginnings of farming and clay utensils for storage. And finally, we participate in a Navratri celebration in Bombay, linking its rituals to the discovery of agriculture 7000 years ago. 
380
381History of science and technology in India, stone age 
382
383https://pad.ma/CFW/96p. jpg
384
385https://pad.ma/CFW/96p. jpg
386
387Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 2: The Stone Age
388https://pad.ma/CFW
389
390https://pad.ma/CFW/256p. jpg
391Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:50:44; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 31. 036; Saturation: 0. 094; Lightness: 0. 323; Volume: 0. 291; Cuts per Minute: 7. 764; Words per Minute: 70. 704;
392
393Summary: This episode captures the life in the Stone Age. We look at stone tool-making, investigate food gathering in pre-historic times through the habits of Halbi tribals in Bastar and travel to Buzahom in Kashmir to understand beginnings of farming and clay utensils for storage. And finally, we participate in a Navratri celebration in Bombay, linking its rituals to the discovery of agriculture 7000 years ago. 
394
395Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 2: The Stone Age
396
397Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit Duration: 00:50:44; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 31. 036; Saturation: 0. 094; Lightness: 0. 323; Volume: 0. 291; Cuts per Minute: 7. 764; Words per Minute: 70. 704 
398
399Summary: This episode captures the life in the Stone Age. We look at stone tool-making, investigate food gathering in pre-historic times through the habits of Halbi tribals in Bastar and travel to Buzahom in Kashmir to understand beginnings of farming and clay utensils for storage. And finally, we participate in a Navratri celebration in Bombay, linking its rituals to the discovery of agriculture 7000 years ago. 
400
401Bharat ki Chhap: Episode 2
402
403Who were the first Indians?Who were they? Who?Who were they? Yes, who?Who were the first Indians?What you mean by 'Indian'?Those who came and settled hereThat's all very wellYes, that's all very wellBut who were those first Indians? -Where did they live?- In forests, or mountains?-What did they eat?-Vegetables, or meat?They lived wherever they could surviveAnd ate what the seasons broughtThat's all very well, but. . . what techniques did they know?Did they, too, sing?. . . did they hum?Did they have a language?Surely they named their thingsTaught their children what they knewThat's all very wellYes, all very well, but. . . what language did they speak?Who were the first Indians?
404
4051. This song “Kaun the woh pehle Bharat wasi?” could be described as nationalistic. But that was not our intention. What we meant to say was that popular culture and pulp fiction represents people from the Stone Age people as crass and monosyllabic, and then equates them to tribal people. This was a prejudice we encountered in the beginning, which is why we called them Bharatwasis. Bharatwasis are people who live on the subcontinent, who were the first people who lived here and we give tribute to them. 
406
407Thirparappu Falls, Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu
408
409Borivali National Park, Mumbai; Mumbai
410
411Pangoraria, District Sehore, Madhya Pradesh
412
413Bhimbetka Cave
414
415Mumbai
416
417To know about the first Indians we need to know about the first people on earth. Discoveries by scientists everywhere help usAfrican fossils, stone tools from China, cave paintings in Europe - all these tell us about the first Indians and about the Stone Age. 
418
4192. Archaeologists know where to find stone age settlements – where there is a source of drinking water, there has to high rise to keep a lookout, a forest though the Stone Age people never went to the thick forests of the Indo Gangetic plains. So there is some idea of how to find them (or their remains) to find out how they lived, what was their technology, what an ideal environment was for them. 
420
421Stone tools helped to develop our brains and the opposing thumb. It is partly related to our evolution. 
422
423Sites where Stone Age people lived are found all over India. They chose areas with certain features - such as vantage points from where wild animals could be observed. Light forest or grassland was preferred to jungle, where the risk of attack by wild animals was greater. 
424
425Peerpanjal Range
426
427Dachigam National Park, Kashmir
428
429To have drinking water close by was essential. Besides the flesh of wild animals, Stone Age people gathered and ate wild fruits, roots and berries from the forests. 
430
431There were no political frontiers then - only natural barriers like rivers, mountains, forests. But as their understanding of nature grew,and they developed new techniques, they began to cross the old barriers and to make their homes in new places. 
432
433Sithannavasal Caves, Puddukottai District, Tamil Nadu
434
435That's all very well but I still want to askDid they know what science was?Yes, of course, what is this if not science?What is it if not knowledge? What is it if not science?Stone tools to cut and scrape-Axes to chop wood -Hooks to catch fish!What are such fine tools if not science?What are they but knowledge? What are they but science?They watched the ways of wild animalsObserved what they ateAnd where the herds movedWhat is this understanding if not science?What are they but knowledge? What are they but science?In such places, they made their homes -A little water . . . Heaps of stone!A little water, heaps of stoneThat was the ideal homeLiving and eating – what are they but science?What, if not knowledge? What, if not science?
436
437Bhimbetka Rock Shelters, Amchha Kalan, Madhya Pradesh
438
439Head waters of Krishna river, Wai, Satara District, Maharashtra
440
441Prehistoric people lived by hunting and food gathering for tens of thousands of years. Very little evidence from that period survives -only some fossils, cave paintings, stone tools. Yet there is another way - by observing the lives of tribal people today, we can learn something about the Stone Age. 
442
443Maitreyi: That is what ethno-archaeology does. There are, for instance, tribal communities in the hills and forests of India who still live by hunting and food gathering. Shehnaaz will tell us more Shehnaaz: Recently, Ramanathan and I went to Komara in Madhya Pradesh's Bastar district. It's a village were Halbi tribals live. Let me emphasise that today's tribal people should not be taken as Stone Age people. They are contemporary people – like this woman going to the market with a plastic shopping bag. We bought that from a local potter. Cycles, watches, radios etc are common there. 
444
445Some Stone Age practices are still followed and to that extent, tribal lifestyles tell us about the scientific knowledge of our first ancestors. 
446
447The people of Komara live by growing paddy. Yet they gather some necessities from the forest. Our guide in Bastar was Iqbal, a journalist who has married Kala, a Halbi tribal, and settled there. 
448
4493. We shot with a group of women in Bastar going on a typical day, and talked about the crucial role of women in food gathering. This is fiction and reality  criss-crossing. We have fictional reporters but people we meet are real. 
450
451The man who takes us into the Bastar region is a Hindi journalist. He was a government official to begin but quit his job when he started exposing the corrupt officials of his department. The journalist and his wife were our guides. 
452
453Kusuma village, Bastar district, Chattisgarh
454
455We spent all morning in the village. Then it was time to do with the women to the forest. Shehnaaz: Don't these remind you of the rock paintings in the Bhimbaitka caves?Iqbal: Yet they've never seen Bhimbaitka!
456
457Maitreyi: Even today in most tribal areas worldwide it is the women who gather food - just as they did in the Stone Age while the men hunted. For women could not take their infants along on long distance hunts. Shehnaaz: Yes – the idea that men were stronger is now discarded. Men do have one advantage – they can run faster. Though what is important here is the knowledge of seasons and plants that women slowly acquired. This was, in a sense, the earliest botany. 
458
459Just discovering which plants were edible, which were not, was a great step forward. The women of Komara knew of many medicinal plants. Stone Age women must also have made such discoveries, and learnt which plants grew where, in which season. To arrive at this knowledge and expand its frontiers took several thousand years of experience. 
460
461She's saying this plant has dried up - underneath must be its roots, which they'll dig up. 
462
463-That's the root
464
465-It looks like a radish
466
467There are many roots that are boiled and eaten. 
468
469Wherever food-gathering is still practised, the main tool women use is the wooden stick. In Bastar they had iron crowbars but metals were unknown in the Stone Age. Women would harden the ends of their sticks in fire. 
470
471Shehnaaz: While women in their search for edible plants were turning soil over – making it more fertile - at some time, certain wild plant varieties gave rise to newer varieties with more grains. Thus, gradually, in different lands, women discovered agriculture. Nissim: Till then, they must have continued to find new sources of food – a greater variety of roots, wild berries and fruit. And much else, as Shehnaaz and Ramanathan discovered!
472
473Q: So you were trying to make a link between current practices and historical evidence of those practices? Did you know you would find this in Bastar?
474
4754. We knew, through various historians and reading research accounts, that we would find in Bastar a link between current practices and historical evidence of the same practices. I already knew Bastar well by then. I had done a film there in 1977 about the lost wax casting of Bastar for Films Division. This whole activity of the taking us around the village was because I knew people there from my previous visit. I think regular shooting teams would not have this kind of cooperation, but this is much before the public polarization of Naxal movement. 
476
477Kusuma village, Bastar district, Chattisgarh; Forest near Kusuma
478
479Iqbal: Do you know what these are? Shehnaaz: Ants?Iqbal: Red ants, chapda, these are eatenShehnaaz: Don't they bite?Iqbal: Well, they must be picked carefullyShehnaaz: Didn't it bite? Iqbal: Here – you try one. They taste a little sourShehnaaz: It is sour – and it bite me on the tongue!Iqbal: They're made into chutney, with salt and chillies
480
481This is the scene where they show Suhaila eating the red ant. I hear that people replay it on youtube a lot. 
482
483While returning home the women plucked saal leaves for making plates and bowls. Women in the Stone Age must also have used roots, fibres, grasses to make baskets and this learnt weaving - a skill that became the basis of cloth weaving. That happened only after humans took to agriculture and a settled life. 
484
485Nissim: For lakhs of years, we were hunters and food gatherers. During this period human evolution continued. As humans understood – and used – nature better, their brains developed too. Of all objects produced by people then, what we find most commonly are stone tools - which is why that age is called the Stone Age. Mairtreyi: All over the world, these tools are similar, for the sequence of human and scientific evolution was the same everywhere. Tool-making techniques reflect this as well. Long before our species, homo sapiens, evolved, the earliest tools were made by striking one stone against another to break it so it would acquite an edge for chopping or digging. Certainly, there was the idea of a sharp edge hidden inside the stone. Nissim: Even a stone or broken branch just lying around can serve as a tool. Chimpanzees are intelligent enough to use such tools. But humans alone have been able to make tools like this screw and screwdriver. Humans, alone, understood the properties of stone and shaped it according to their needs. 
486
487Who was the first scientist? Today, all of us would suggest different names - but few would think of the Stone Age. Yet the human being who first broke and shaped a stone in a definite way to make a tool - wasn't her or she a scientist?
488
4895. Our intention was to attack and dismantle certain perceptions. Typical naive questions we are asked us in school, like who was the first scientist? Who was the first man on the moon? Like being first matters – so these are the kind of things that we consistently attacked. 
490
491The idea we had was that the first scientist is not some famous whose biography you know but it is the person in the Stone Age who was hitting and shaping stones. This is what we reiterate through the series that the ordinary people made science. We also used the series to make them familiar with places of interest, like if you are Pune you should visit the Deccan College museum. 
492
493Pune's Deccan College has a good collection of stone tools. This model takes us through the various stages of the Stone Age to the time when agriculture began. 
494
4956. We had these huge files of our research, but they are all lost. We didn’t have the means to archive it. The books that were bought are still with us. We also got a lot of books from scholars. 
496
497We got in touch with the scholars ourselves, not using either the connections through ISRO or DST. Many of them were inaccessible because of their own elitism. But when you are convinced about something you can enthuse others. Fortunately almost everyone cooperated and the support was tremendous. 
498
499The earliest period had big, heavy tools like this one. It may appear, at first, to be an ordinary stone but it has been skillfully given a sharp edge, and the other side rounded to make it easier to hold. This pointed end would have been used to dig for roots and other edible things. This is called a hand-axe; and this is cleaver – used to skin animals and scrape the bark off trees . 
500
501These were early forms of the tools we know today. Tools in the next period are sometimes of finer-grained stone, which makes for a sharper edge and better finish. Some were used to make or sharpen other tools such as spears and arrows of wood or bone. 
502
503In the next period we notice certain refinements. This is a blade. Sharp enough to use as a knife, it could be fixed to a handle. And these, in fact, prefigure the small, precise tools known as microliths. 
504
505Microliths are the most advanced Stone Age tools. A single microlith is rarely a tool by itself - many microliths combine to make a tool. As we come closer to the present, the Stone Age periods get shorter. For lakhs of years, there were only crude tools which changed very little. But when improvements did begin, the next period was shorter – only 20,000 years !Riding this accelerating wave of progress we have, in just five or six thousand years, come all the way from the microlith to the microchip! Today our problems are different. We have many devices to satisfy various needs. But surely the person who invented the hand-axe was as scientifically advanced for that age as we now imagine ourselves to be. 
506
507Head waters of Krishna river, Wai, Satara District, Maharashtra
508
509Not far from Pune, near the source of the Krishna, is Wakeshwar. Even if the river dries up there is water all year round. Because of this fish, birds, small animals can always be found. The river bed and banks are strewn with basalt, ideal for making stone tools. This was, in a sense, an ideal Stone Age habitat. These have broken and been swept ashore. 
510
5117. So now we go to Wai, where a professor from Deccan College will make a microlith. 
512
513Here's a piece suitable for making a hand-axe. Dr Vasant Shinde of Deccan College had brought me here to show me how stone tools are made. What do you look for when selecting a stone? Well, it should be of the right thickness, like this one. And it should be fine-grained, so that it breaks cleanly. -Will you make a hand-axe? - Yes
514
5159. In this scene the professor does a practical demonstration of the technology, and this happens throughout the series. The character then discusses how it felt to do something that is steeped in history, and this often happens throughout the BKC series. 
516
517I watched how he used a small stone to shape the larger stone. He knew where to strike, from which angle, how hard or gently. I realised, then – Stone Age people also knew how the stone would break; how far the impact of each blow would travel. Clearly, they followed a mental plan
518
519Ranjan: I suppose these early tools were used for basic tasks digging, scraping, cutting?Dr. Shinde: That's right! And remember, not all tools were held directly - they were often set in wooden or bone handles to make axes or spears. Ranjan: The handle saved energy and the tool developed too. And when humans learnt to throw spears the tool did the running for them. 
520
521Will you make a microlith now?Yes. These require very fine-grained stone - jasper, chert, chalcedony. This is the flat surface from which blades have been removed. If you strike the flat edge the blade could break midway - so it's always the pointed edge that's struck
522
523- Like this
524
525Ranjan: A hundred thousand years separate the hand-axe from blades like this. A long journey of progress. 
526
527Dr. Shinde: Many microliths were used to make a tool by sticking them to a handle. They must have used plant resins for this
528
529Ranjan: May I -? A straight sickle!
530
531These light tools with their tiny, sharp teeth bring us to the threshold of agriculture. As we were leaving, the moon was rising above the hills. Its reflection shimmered in the Krishna. Did the people who lived here 50,000 years ago look at the moon in the same way?
532
533In this scene of the full moon night with the dialogue “(They[Stone age humans] would have seen this same full moon”) – that happened spontaneously on the spot while shooting. 
534
535Nissim: Dr. Shinde demonstrated the techniques of tool-making. The understanding of the stone's properties and the tool's design – is related to science. Earlier Maitreyi spoke of how stone was hit against stone to obtain a tool with a cutting edge. Our homo habilis ancestors followed this method. Later homo erectus began to make tools according to a specific plan. Now both hands were used in coordination for different tasks. Our species, homo sapiens, used better techniques to make tools for a wider range of needs. Maitreyi: To follow a plan thus is to use the same ability that an architect requires or a designer of bridges. There are many Stone Age cave sites all over India. A profusion of stone tools is found at many such sites. Several caves have rock paintings too. Ranjan and Amrita visited the Bhimbaitka caves near Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. Their guide was Salim Siddiqui, a student with a keen interest in these caves. 
536
53710. Bhimbettka caves: In this scene, the character was Salim Siddiqui, a cave lover and our tour guide for the area, but the actor backed out at the last minute, and so this scene is actually acted by our Hindi dialogue writer with our unit. 
538
539Bhimbetka Rock Shelters, Amchha Kalan, Madhya Pradesh
540
541Amrita: How much further, Salim?
542
543Ranjan: Tired? We've seen just two places. There are some 500 shelters here. 
544
545Salim: We don't have to see all of them! Only some have paintings. Many are in a bad state. 
546
547Ranjan: All the same, isn't it marvellous that we can see paintings 30,000 years old?
548
549Amrita: Salim, I was reading that they made colours from animal fat, vegetable extracts and various minerals. Ranjan: How many experiments they must have done to perfect each pigment!Salim: Water flows down this way in the rains - it's a good place to hunt for microliths. This is waste from stone tool-making. And here's a microlith. See how sharp these tools were. Amrita: Salim, what you said about imagination in paintings also applies to tools. To pick a stone and shape it for a definite purpose requires imagination, surely?Ranjan: Where did the team from Deccan College dig? It's quite close. Let's go. Amrita! Let's goAmrita: Coming – I just want to take some pictures
550
551To make a tool with a specific shape in mind is linked not just to science, but also art. To depict three-dimensional forms – animals and people as lines on flat rock surfaces was, in a way, quite a breakthrough. Such a huge animal and this man, running away in fright. One theory is that these paintings were made so as to acquire control over the animals and to overcome fear. Perhaps this frightened man returned with other men and together, skilfully, they killed the animal. 
552
553When humans learned to use fire for cooking, they were able to eat more of the kill. Fire made many things edible. And because it created light amid darkness, there was more time to spend with others, to teach the children, to sing, dance and tell stories
554
555We're not certain when humans learned to make fire. But hundreds of thousands of years ago, they knew how to keep fires alive. It was fire that enabled our homo erectus ancestors to survive the ice ages. It is one thing to keep a fire going but to make fire, it is necessary to understand certain prerequisites. One – the spark, used to light the fire. Two – a material that catches fire quickly. And to keep it going, fuel - which may not catch fire quickly but once alight, burns for a long time. 
556
557Nissim: Fire was our first step towards chemistry. As time passed, people understood better its ability to transform materials. Maitreyi: Fire made baked pottery possible and, later, the production of metals. Nissim: But humans then probably did not think of fire in the terms we are using to discuss it. They must have seen it as an animal that had to be kept alive by constant feeding. If fed too much, it could turn dangerous, like the sun, wind, rain, fire, too must have been a force to be propitiated, so that it would protect the worshipper from harm. Maitreyi: Such ideas may have served to inspire art. Thus science, religion and art are aspects of human imagination that had common roots. In time, humans began to observe their differences. As each branch developed it grew apart from the others, even contradictory -like religion and science. 
558
559We'll have the opportunity to discuss this again. So we've seen our ancestors' growing understanding of nature, and have reach that age, 10,000 years ago, when we learned to grow crops and rear animals. Life changed so radically in the New Stone Age that we call this time the Neolithic Revolution. Evidences of this kind of life in India were found in Burzahom, near Srinagar, Kashmir. 
560
56111. Burzahom: This is in 1987, before the rise of militancy in Kashmir and before the military excesses of the Indian Army on the people of Kashmir. The scene in Burzahom is really about the Neolithic Revolution. Here again we are using the form of showing things in the present, which evoke the past. The women are still winnowing and drying food. Potters are still making pots similar to the ones in the archaeological records; even similar crops are grown in the region. 
562
563Burzahom, Kashmir
564
565Shehnaaz: Burzahom Burz – the birch tree, and hom – the place. The New Stone Age settlers here used birch bark to roof their dwellings - hence, perhaps, this name. The houses were pits dug into the ground and the birch roofs were waterproof. Many house remains were excavated. Ranjan: This is a cross-section of one such house. They were circular – like this. This is the floor. Ash-marks show that the fireplace was here. Archaeologists working here have found grain samples and tools of bone and stone. 
566
567Ranjan: Houses, pots, grain. These are the things that enabled those people to move away from hunting and food gathering and settle down in one place. Shehnaaz: There is not much to see here today - but today's Burzahom, like any other village, can tell us about the Neolithic Revolution. 
568
569Burzahom, Kashmir
570
57112. Wedding scene: Weddings are places where a society displays its best things in plentiful. We were really getting desperate to find a wedding and we only had a few days left to shoot in Kashmir. One day we saw this Tonga wala with huge utensils. He told us there was a wedding. We requested the family to let us shoot and they did. Here we also get a sense of the range of foods and diet, because it is a wedding. 
572
573We see another continuity from Stone Age times to our present which is the Navratri festival, a celebration of plants and fertility. 
574
575Marriage preparations are in full swing here. What there is to eat, the wedding feast will tell! But let's see what the ingredients are. Actually, all these are familiar ingredients. What is worth noting is that our Stone Age ancestors would not have found any of these things in the wild. Generations of farming have produced every item. And without human assistance not one of these species can survive. Sowing seeds, planting saplings, looking after them – humans must do all this. Humans have produced not just vegetables,fruit and grain, but also those animals whose flesh we eat. 
576
577These animals have changed so much that Stone Age man, who hunted their ancestors, would be amazed by them now. This species cannot survive in the wild. It depends on its master the shepherd, for food and protection against the cold, and on watchdogs to ward off attacks by wild animals. Shepherd: We're going to the highlands - there the sheep will drink plenty of water and eat good grass. 
578
579Ranjan: When humans began to rear animals instead of hunting, they continued to be nomads till they took to farming. Shehnaaz: To stop wandering in search of food and to grow it instead meant living in one place. This was not an easy choice for the hunter-gatherers as the new life was full of risks and uncertainty. First, the soil had to be prepared and each crop sown in its own season. Besides watering and tending, it needed protection from animals. And then flood or drought or crop disease could lay waste months of labour. 
580
581Ranjan: Farming can support large numbers in a single place. Small bands this slowly become larger groups and people grew so attached to the land, they began to think of it as their own. Shehnaaz: People had to work together all year round as every task had to be done at the right time. Their needs also grew - pots and jars for storing grain, shelters where they could keep their possessions away from sun and rain – in short, homes. 
582
583Freedom from the constant search for food meant more time for handicrafts. Pottery, baskets, cloth-weaving - all these developed in this period. 
584
585What are the dishes' names?Rishtaba, gushtaba, tabak maasThis is Jahangiri korma . . and this, rogan josh
586
587For the first time, they had food in surplus which they could fall back on in lean times, or use for exchange with other communitiesThus, with agriculture, began a new era of social and economic development. 
588
589The earliest evidence of agriculture comes from the Fertile Crescent in West Asia and is some ten thousand years old. By 7000 BC an urban civilisation had come up, of which the oldest city was Jericho. 
590
591In recent years the site of Mehrgarh has yielded the earliest evidence of farming in the subcontinent. It is on the banks of the Bolan in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan. Excavations reveal that from around 7000 to 2500 BC the site was continuously inhabited. Grains of wheat, hunting, then rearing of animals. Houses of unbaked bricks and granaries. Sophisticated stone tools, beads, jewellery, trade. And graves for the dead. 
592
593Mehrgarh, Balochistan, Pakistan
594
595Nissim: It is thought that thus, gradually, in and around Mehrgarh, a civilisation was born that spread to the Indus valley. Along its rivers, amid a flourishing agriculture science too found new directions. This was the Harappan civilisation, which we shall discuss next time. Maitreyi: Lakhs of years separated the first hunter-gatherers from the farmers of Jericho and Mehrgarh. But between those farmers and us – just 10,000 years, as though it were only yesterday! No wonder so many of our festivals still recall the discovery of agriculture. 
596
597Wadala, Mumbai
598
599Navratri – well-known festival of Gujarat. In this block of flats in Bombay, too, women are pouring grain into earthen pots and placing lit oil lamps inside. This is a women's festival. Most of the rituals are performed by women. 
600
601Amrita:Why are wheat and jowar planted and why are moong beans put into a garbhi? What do these rituals signify?Gujarati lady: Well, just as the grain sprouts in the pot we pray to Amba Mata that we too may prosper. Amrita: Does anyone know why the ritual pot is called a garbhi? These earthen pots are called garbhi - a word resembling garbh or womb. When women first grew grain from the soil - and harvests began to increase - it was possible to support larger populations. Crop productivity and human fertility were thus linked, giving rise to many customs. And perhaps this dual power of women came to be personified as mother goddesses. The festivities last for nine days. The seeds planted on the first day have now sprouted. They remind us of that first success. Perhaps festivals like Onam, Dussehra, Holi all celebrate that triumph. 
602----------------------------------------
603Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 3: The Harappan Civilization (Chandita Mukherjee) – Pad. ma
604
605https://pad.ma/CFX/player/" 
606https://pad.ma/CFX/player/
607Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 3: The Harappan Civilization
608
609Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:51:13; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 21. 447; Saturation: 0. 107; Lightness: 0. 368; Volume: 0. 320; Cuts per Minute: 7. 771; Words per Minute: 74. 894;
610
611Summary: This episode discusses the Harappan civilization. Some of the characters travel to Harappan excavation sites – reporting their lifestyles, aspects of city planning and governance, jewellery making and terracota work. 
612
613History of science and technology in India, Harappan civilization 
614
615https://pad.ma/CFX/96p. jpg
616
617https://pad.ma/CFX/96p. jpg
618
619Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 3: The Harappan Civilization
620https://pad.ma/CFX
621
622https://pad.ma/CFX/256p. jpg
623Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:51:13; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 21. 447; Saturation: 0. 107; Lightness: 0. 368; Volume: 0. 320; Cuts per Minute: 7. 771; Words per Minute: 74. 894;
624
625Summary: This episode discusses the Harappan civilization. Some of the characters travel to Harappan excavation sites – reporting their lifestyles, aspects of city planning and governance, jewellery making and terracota work. 
626
627Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 3: The Harappan Civilization
628
629Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit Duration: 00:51:13; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 21. 447; Saturation: 0. 107; Lightness: 0. 368; Volume: 0. 320; Cuts per Minute: 7. 771; Words per Minute: 74. 894 
630
631Summary: This episode discusses the Harappan civilization. Some of the characters travel to Harappan excavation sites – reporting their lifestyles, aspects of city planning and governance, jewellery making and terracota work. 
632
633Bharat ki Chhap: Episode 3
634
635National Museum, New Delhi
636
637National Museum, New Delhi
638
6391. Amrita and Shehnaz are rushing through the grand entrance of the NAtional Museum, New Delhi. This is a dreamlike scene because we don’t know too much about the Harappans. There is black dark interior and a few spotlights with Harappan artefacts. We created this so it seems like we are piecing together a story with the little evidence that we have. The first thing we encounter are the faces of the Harappans. We just don’t know - are these real people for whom sculptures have been made? Are they gods and goddess? Are they little dolls and not meant to be sacred objects at all? The close-ups of the actors are in the studio in Bombay. The museum objects were of course shot in the National Museum. In similar lighting we have shot the song “What is a city?” and the commonalities of the Harappan city then and the city today. 
640
641Shehnaaz: Hurry, Amrita! The museum closes at five. Amrita: Today we must meet the Harappans. 
642
643Look!Who were they?- We're not sure - Even so?- Common people like us?- Or gods? - Or rulers?- Or works of art - Or toysWe can only guess
644
645At the time when we were shooting this - the Hindutva right had not claimed the Harappans as their own. The Vedic people were their sacred Sanskritic ancestors and anybody before that was uncivilized and tribal. 
646
647Come, let's travelTo the first cities of SindhuSing the praises of Ramanathan Maharaj!Sindhu? Who's this Sindhu?Who is Sindhu? Who's this Sindhu?The 5000 year old Sindhu (Indus) civilisation!Everybody knowsThose were cities – what's a city?Don't you know?I know! A city is crowds, a city is hustleA city is bustle and brick houses-Is that so? -Oh yes, hustle-bustleand brick houses. Riches too, and povertyA city is trade, a city – is – trade, a city is --Speak up, then! -GovernmentA city is markets and water systemsA  city is relationships, employment, industriesA city is new thoughts, it makes the mind spinSpin around and about, round and aboutStop stop stop! Were there such cities even then?Oh yes, such cities, and better stillMany lie buried yet under field and hillThe more we seek, the deeper we goIf we know where to look, the more shall we know
648
6492. We were talking to Dr. Rao, who is a slightly controversial archaeologist in whose work a lot of people do not agree. Subsequently he became part of the arsenal of the Hindutva right. 
650
651It was only in the late 90s with the dominance of Mr. Advani, that suddenly the Harappans too were claimed as their own by the Hindutva brigade. . 
652
653Dr. Rao was doing this important underwater excavations as part of National Institute of Oceanography Goa project. This institute was the only one with boats, dredgers and trained deep sea drivers. Dr. Rao’s findings were not conclusive because the debris at the bottom of the ocean is piled one on top of the other i. e. the debris was not of any one historical period. But Dr. Rao had the tendency to see some Cuneiform markings on a piece of pottery and relate it to Vishnu or Brahma or other Hindu gods - always linking it up to some greater notion of Hinduism. He had another agenda - to say that the Harappans were the original Brahmins and that they migrated to the South. 
654
655This actually causes a kind of problem within the right wing notion of history. The people who they venerated as the Rig Vedic people are then just invaders of the earlier city civilizations that definitely more materially advanced. But at the time we were shooting this, he was the only one doing this underwater archaeology. Even at that point some of the things he was saying were problematic. 
656
657Dr Rao, roughly how far did the city extend?You're in a boat streaking white through the water, and your companion says, “From here to that shore were streets and houses. ” How would you feel? I found it strange, and exciting, as Dr S R Rao introduced me this to a sunken Harappan city. A small section of the sunken city remains above water, on Bet Dwaraka island. On disembarking we began to find Harappan signs - leftovers of conches used for making bangles. Also typical perforated pots. 
658
659Bet Dwarka, Gujarat
660
661Maitreyi: The ruins of Harappa, discovered in the 1850s also yielded objects like those found at Bet Dwaraka. Archaeologists then were unable to relate those finds to any known culture. Today they can confidently say that these artefacts are Harappan in origin. Their confidence is based on the find made later. Nissim: Mohenjodaro was discovered 60 years later on the banks of the Indus, and gradually people realised that both cities were centres of an ancient and developed civilisation. This changed our view of the subcontinent's past - we'd assume the Vedic civilisation was oldest. 
662
663Mohenjodaro
664
665Maitreyi: Now, over 700 big and small Harappan sites are known, stretching from the Himalayan foothills to the Tapi river in the south, and in the east from the Yamuna's banks to the western Makran coast - approximately 1. 5 million sq km. Knowing its true extent, we cannot limit it to the 'Indus Valley' civilisation. Today it's called the 'Harappan' civilisation. Nissim: As newer sites are found, our knowledge grows - and new questions arise. A village site was recently found at Nagwada, GujaratExcavations were on when Ranjan and Amrita arrived. 
666
6674. The maps were drawn for the series, but they were approved by the Survey of India under the Department of Science and Technology. 
668
669Nagwada, Gujarat
670
671We felt the Mohenjodaro excavation pictures had come to life. A team from Baroda University was at work. The women labourers said the pots found resembled the pots they used in their homes. I noticed some round terracotta objects with ridges. Dr Hegde said these were probably finger imprints. He's named the objects mushtika. May I keep this?Holding a mushtika in my hand was like shaking hands with an unknown Harappan. Dr Hegde thinks that in some ritual, clay lumps pressed in the palm were dropped into the fire. 
672
6733. Amrita visit the University of Baroda - Department of Archaeology. She visits one of the huts in which they have displayed artefacts from their excavations. Interior monologue is one of the formal devices that we have used. She touches and plays with the artefacts. Normally museums don’t allow that, but this was specially allowed for the shooting. She was allowed grind the carnelian on a wet stone, recreating the action of the craft making. This interior monologue always has this charged-up, energetic voice that is not the normal speaking voice, and incomplete thoughts are spoken in phrases, not in sentences. 
674
675Am I in a museum or a village home? The same spindle, stove, mortar and pestle, storage jars, beads. Everything's familiar, yet thousands of years old. 
676
677Nagwada, Gujarat
678
679I asked about how those people built their houses. Dr Hegde told me they used sun-dried bricks which were identical in proportion to Harappan baked bricks. Throughout the Harappan civilisation bricks might vary in size but never in proportion. If the height is 1, the breadth would be double i. e. 	34	 and length double that, i. e. 4. These, too, are Harappan-type bricks which can be laid in many ways to build a wall. But how to lay them so that the wall withstands stress, and does not fall easily? Let's see how the 'English bond' tackles the problem. Today it's considered the strongest structure and the Harappans, more or less, followed this method. Put the bricks lengthwise in twos in the first layer. The proportion allows us to lay them breadthwise in the second layer. But here next to the two end bricks, we put a brick each of half of width. And so on layer lengthwise and one breadthwise till the wall is completed. This is the English bond - its strength is based on these half-bricks which we placed in every alternative layerSee how, in this wall, the joints are never one above the other. This the stress is evenly distributed and the wall does not easily collapse. The Harappan masons had understood this principle. 
680
681Maitreyi: Contemporary civilisations like Sumer and Egypt also used bricks on a large scale. But these were sun-dried bricks - those regions didn't have enough wood to fuel kilns. Nissim: A brick is the basic unit of a wall. Walls make houses, houses from a colony. Street connect colonies which together form a city. Cities can come up haphazardly but Harappan cities were well-planned. All problems – the movement of vehicles and of people, the siting of industries and markets, garbage collection – had to anticipated. Such preconception requires science. Maitreyi: From the brick to the city, every big and small aspect needs precise planning - as is evident from the Harappan cities. Such planned cities then existed nowhere else. Nissim: Cities, to function well, need not only science but social cooperation and sound administration too. 
682
683Lothal, Gujarat
684
685Lothal, Gujarat
686
687What? Is this a city?Yes it is!Yes, this is a city!Yes, yes, this is a city!What were they like, our first cities?These cities, these cities, these cities
688
689Lothal, near present-day Ahmedabad. The best-preserved Harappan city in India, though only the plinths of the house remain. Lothal wasn't as large as Harappa or Kalibangan - it was 6 or 7 hectares, Harappa about 50. Yet certain things were identical, everywhere -brick proportions, weights and measure, city planning. 
690
691Many places had one area that was on a rise - here, probably, lived the rich people. Their houses were large and often two-storeyed. Other sections had smaller houses where the poor lived. High and low areas, rich and poor - who knows what sort of relationship they had? We know so little about their society, thinking, daily life, religion, politics
692
693They baked agate in this furnace to make carnelian beads. In this section must also have been pottery, copper and cotton cloth industries. Merchants and craftsmen seem to have lived here. 
694
695Surkotada, Kutch, Gujarat
696
697On the edge of the Rann of Kutch is Surkotada, small Harappan hamlet. Here stone, rather than brick, meets the eye. Yet it was as well-planned as other Harappan cities. Such an extensive civilisation – cities, villages, small towns – what bound them together? Each town had its unique features. High walls surround this place – perhaps as a defence against foes. In Mohenjodaro the east-west streets intersect the north-south, forming crossroads with housing plots in between. And in Banawali, the streets radiate out from a point. So many cities of so many kinds!
698
699Lothal, Gujarat
700
701Surkotada, Banawali, Rakhigarhi, RehmanderiMohenjodaro, Lohumjodaro – these cities!Daimabad was populous, Ganveriwala had rural tiesRangpur was colorful, Dholavira was fortified!-Di di di di? -Rozdi!Ji ji ji ji? -Kot Diji!-Hurry, hurry? -Aamri!-What else do you know? - Allahdino, Allahdino!Come, let's go to LothalCourtyards, gardens, Kalibangan!Big city, Harrapa, little town, ChanhudaroWhat were they like, our first cities?These cities, these cities, these cities
702
703Amrita: The city has a network of drains. Ranjan: That's part of city planning. Smaller house drains joined the road drains which emptied into the main street drain. Amrita: Ranjan - these drains show how well natural slopes were used. Ranjan : In fact, they even made slopes where needed. And the drains were brick-covered then. Amrita: To think that for centuries this technique was lost. Why does that happen?
704
705Such an advanced technique – but its maintenance? They must have ensured the cleaning was regular. What sort of government did they have?I read how, while digging, toys were found which children must have lost in the drains!
706
707Toys, and many other thingsWere made of clay by those masters of clayDolls, bead, bangles, earringsOven, stoves, pots and platesHouses of baked brick adorned the citiesTerracotta reigned supreme in the cities
708
709National Museum, New Delhi
710
711Lothal, Gujarat
712
713This is Lothal's most unique feature. There are many opinions on what this was - but its excavator believes it was among the largest dock complexes in the world. The dock, 400m long and 30m wide, could shelter 25 or 30 boats. These used a canal to and from the Bhogavo river where the ships anchored with goods from West Asia. These hollows must have held a wooden gate which was lowered or raised to control the water level. In the far-flung Harappan trade Lothal must have played an important role. There was a big warehouse close by, where merchants must have stored their goods - beads, grains, perhaps bales of cotton cloth. 
714
715What was it like, the inhabited city? When people returned from faraway Sumer - bustle, bargaining, reunions!
716
717This was the Lothal warehouse. Then it caught fire and was razed to the ground. That's how it was, when excavated. Why was it never repaired? Had trade declined? Making them abandon the structure? Or had people begun to leave the city? Were they unhappy? Or oppressed? What was happening in these cities at that time?
718
719National Museum, New Delhi
720
721These big cities with their far-flung commerce must have relied on written records which have not survived. We have found only seals and pots, inscribed with symbols. Historians have long been trying to decipher these. They're yet to reach definite conclusions - but we know it isn't a pictographic script, and it's written from right to left. 
722
723National Museum, New Delhi
724
725Shehnaaz: Amrita, it's so puzzling - those people left behind so much, yet each thing Amrita: Seems to hide a secret? Shehnaaz: Yes! Once the script is read we'll learn so much about them - and about ourselves. Amrita: The animals, anyway, are recognisable. Nissim: The seals have other familiar symbols - peepal leaves, the swastika, and, seated in a yogic posture, a figure who is though to resemble Shiva. Maitreyi: It's also known that merchants used these seals to stamp their goods. Once we understand the script, we may learn the merchant's name, what goods he was carrying, where he came from, where he was going. Or we'll find a prayer for the safety of his goods, or a traveller's plea for state protection. Surely we'll learn something of their business methods, religion, government. Nissim: The script is unlikely to answer all these questions. We'll still have to depend on everyday objects and on comparisons with other civilisations of the time, like Sumer and Egypt. 
726
727Fields near Allahabad
728
729Like Sumer and Egypt, Harappa was a riverine civilisation, dependent on annual floods, which left fertile soil deposits on the banks. Their crop-growing was based on this cycle Rabi crops, sown after the monsoon floods receded, were harvested in the springThey grew some kharif crops too. Their crop variety makes us think they mustn't have depended wholly on floods. We're now discovering many Harappan sites not on river bank. So they had wells and canals, to contain flood water. Explorations at sites like Allahdino near Karachi show that artesian wells were used for irrigation. 
730
731All the evidence suggests that their food consisted of items familiar to us - wheat, barley, millets, sesame, peas. They may have grown cotton, fruits like pomegranate, grapes, dates, bananas, watermelon. What sort of agricultural implements did they use? These must have been mainly of wood, rope, bamboo - materials that perished. Clay objects survived - such as this toy plough found in Banawali. This gives us some idea of their tools. 
732
733National Museum, New Delhi
734
735Banawali Ploughshare
736
737A field in Kalibangan, excavated in the '70s still bore plough-marks made 4000 years ago. In Sind and Rajasthan such grid ploughing is still done. Archaeologists thus know these were plough-marks. In this method, furrows in one direction were closer, while those in the other were further apart. In closer rows they planted a shorter crop and in the further-apart rows, a taller crop. So the tall crop's shadow did not fall on the short, and both got enough sun. Thus the Harappans had analysed the shadow cycle, and accordingly evolved a method of ploughing. 
738
739Amrita: Isn't it lovely, Shehnaaz? Was it for storing grain?Shehnaaz: Here's a farmer, and a pair of bullocks. 
740
741National Museum, New Delhi
742
743Look at the range of copper tools they had. But was there enough copper then for everyone to have such tools?Shehnaaz: Do you recognise her? Amrita:Who doesn't? Nissim: We've known the Dancing Girl of Mohenjodaro since childhood. Besides being beautiful, she proves the Harappans had learnt to make bronze. Maitreyi: Bronze is an alloy. Copper is made hard by adding lead, tin or arsenic to it. Copper was in use by the end of the Stone Age in the Indian subcontinent, but Harappans were the first to use bronze - though copper and bronze had long been common in the West Asian region. 
744
745Where in India were the copper mines? Ramanathan takes us on a journey. 
746
747Khetri Mines; Khetri, Jhunjhunu District, Rajasthan
748
749Analysis of Harappan bronze objects tells us their copper came mainly from the Aravalli hills, from deposits like this, which still yield ore. Today we can extract copper from low-grade ore, but the Harappans needed ore that had a high copper content. The area has many such pits – disused mine shafts, from where the copper came thousands of years ago. This- Hindustan Copper Ltd in Khetri, Rajasthan - is India's biggest unit for extracting and refining copper. 
750
751Khetrinagar, Jhunjhunu District, Rajasthan
752
753Potter's kiln firing
754
755At first, there were stone, wood, clay. With metals, everything must have changed. Metal is more malleable, it can be twisted, joined,heated and beaten into desired shapes, melted down and cast in different moulds. But ore is rock. How was it realised that it could yield metal? Was it through the potter's art - which already used fire to transform materials?
756
757Maitreyi: Potters, to decorate and burnish their pots, must have experimented with a variety of clays. Perhaps some ore got mixed in with the clay and the temperature, air pressure and oxygen in the furnace combined so as to smelt the ore. It may have been a coincidence at first - but no industry can depend on coincidences. A technique that can be understood, and repeated, is needed. Nissim: Besides copper – and bronze-making, the Harappans were adept in many technologies - cotton cloth, bead-making, boat-building etc. Maitreyi: Making bangles from conch-shells too. In coastal Nageshwar in the Gulf of Kutch are found bangles in every stage of manufacture. 
758
759Nissim: The crafts we spoke of were all local industries, for which the raw material came from specific places. Sometimes it was brought from thousands of kilometres away. Products made of such expensive materials were largely exported, to the Gulf and to Sumer. Maitreyi: Such large-scale far-flung industries had to have standardised weights and measures. We've found a variety of weights, small and big. These are identical in every region of Harappa. They're on a scale that doubles – one, two, four, eight, sixteen etc. Nissim: Historians believe that from about 3000 to 1700 BC was Harappa's most prosperous period. There were other cultures in the subcontinent, technologically less developed than Harappa, but there was certainly trade between the two. How else did a Harappan pot and beads reach Burzahom in Kashmir? And gold objects were found in Lothal, but the area has no gold. 
760
761National Museum, New Delhi
762
763Lothal Museum, Lothal, Gujarat
764
765So many kinds of beads! And the colours – red, yellow, blue, purple. Terracotta, stone, copper, gold, every possible material. After a long journey, I reached Khambat - a small coastal town in Gujarat. Here they manufacture agate beads. Agate is baked in furnaces to make carnelian. In this locality, every household is engaged in this industry. Some break the stones, some drill, some polish. 
766
767The Museum, Mumbai
768
769National Museum, New Delhi
770
771Khambat, Gujarat
772
773The outer crust is broken with a hammer of horn, because such hammers don't shatter the stone inside. Bow drills are used for making holes. Was the Harappan bead-making technique the same? The agate industry is just one example of links between Harappa and our own times. Perhaps many of our present-day crafts began with Harappa. Who knows?
774
775Maitreyi: Harappan agate beads found in West Asian countries reflect their popularity abroad, then as now. The Harappans must have voyaged there in boats - but how? The stars gave directions, but what instruments did they use to fix their course? Nissim: All we can say is that they must have sailed along the coast, avoiding strong mid-ocean currents. It was a long voyage from the Gulf of Kutch to Sumer. To carry enough food and water was impossible. On the Makran coast, two small Harappan settlements have been found – Sotka-koh and Sutkagen-dor, where they must have stopped for supplies. 
776
777They released birds to find land, as depicted on a seal. Sumer's written records mention a certain land called Meluhha. Its industries, crafts and sailors are highly praised. Historians think Sumerians called the Harrapan area Meluhha. 
778
779Arabian Sea, Okha,Jamnagar District, Gujarat
780
781Meluhha, Meluhha – where oh where, was Meluhha?In Sumerian recordsthe name of Meluhha shone bright
782
783We'd decided to complete our reports, meet in Kutch, and travel to Dholavira. 
784
785Bhuj, Kutch, Gujarat
786
787Dholavira, Kutch, Gujarat
788
789Ranjan:Once more I realised how our traditions remain alive. Shehnaaz: Are the Harappan pots found at the site here at all like your own pots?Potter: Well, our pots are not as sturdy and heavy. But yet the painted motifs are fairly similar. 
790
791Archaeologists predict that Dholavira will be the biggest Harappan city site found in India. Though excavations are yet to begin, many artefacts have been found on the surface. 
792
793During the '70-'71 famine were building a dam and I was in charge of the muster. As we dug we began to find pots, bangles, etc. I found a tiny seal I'd no idea what it was - but it matched a picture in a history textbook. I had no use for it, and wondered what I should do. So I took it to Bhuj, to the museum's curator. He said it was very significant and told the newspapers. The publicity brought archaeologists who said this was a major Harappan site. 
794
795The mound of Dholavira! Once a prosperous city. Preparations for digging were under way yet our archaeologist-guide found some time for us. The mound's shape, and objects found indicate that this city was divided into three sections. Each section had its own fortification walls. Open spaces separate the high and middle areas. Having shown us around, our guide left us to our own explorations. 
796
797With the decline of the Harappan cities their science, too, was lost for many centuriesWhy?Was most of their science controlled by the rulers? So the end of their era meant the end of unique aspects like city planning, standardised bricks and weights? And why did certain things survive - like the copper, bronze and shell bangle industries? Is it that certain aspects of science can flourish only with centralised support?
798
799Crafts like these exist even today. 4000 years have gone by. Possibly, the craft stagnated, for it seems their artisans were as poor as ours are today. Those tiny houses in the lower city sections were probably their homes. 
800
801It's strange how Harappa and Dholavira were both discovered by chance - Harappa when a railway line was being laid and 100 years later, Dholavira in the course of famine relief work. Yet much has changed in these 100 years. When Harappa was found nobody knew where to fit it into our history. But now? The digging is yet to begin, and already we have such expectations of Dholavira!
802
803On the India-Pakistan border is Dholavira. A big centre of trade between Sind and Kutch in its time. Many new artefacts will be unearthed, and we may find answers to some questions that have often puzzled us. Perhaps new questions will arise. Perhaps we will get to know the Harappans better
804----------------------------------------
805Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 4: The Iron Age (Chandita Mukherjee) – Pad. ma
806
807https://pad.ma/CFY/player
808https://pad.ma/CFY/player
809Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 4: The Iron Age
810
811Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:49:20; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 33. 602; Saturation: 0. 131; Lightness: 0. 289; Volume: 0. 316; Cuts per Minute: 5. 939; Words per Minute: 69. 626;
812
813Summary: This episode introduces the Iron Age. We understand the Vedas and their growing influence on society, traditional iron-smelting techniques from Bastar, geometry through Shulbasutra and a changing social structure. 
814
815History of science and technology in India, Iron Age 
816
817https://pad.ma/CFY/96p. jpg
818
819https://pad.ma/CFY/96p. jpg
820
821Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 4: The Iron Age
822https://pad.ma/CFY
823
824https://pad.ma/CFY/256p. jpg
825Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:49:20; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 33. 602; Saturation: 0. 131; Lightness: 0. 289; Volume: 0. 316; Cuts per Minute: 5. 939; Words per Minute: 69. 626;
826
827Summary: This episode introduces the Iron Age. We understand the Vedas and their growing influence on society, traditional iron-smelting techniques from Bastar, geometry through Shulbasutra and a changing social structure. 
828
829Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 4: The Iron Age
830
831Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit Duration: 00:49:20; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 33. 602; Saturation: 0. 131; Lightness: 0. 289; Volume: 0. 316; Cuts per Minute: 5. 939; Words per Minute: 69. 626 
832
833Summary: This episode introduces the Iron Age. We understand the Vedas and their growing influence on society, traditional iron-smelting techniques from Bastar, geometry through Shulbasutra and a changing social structure. 
834
835After the Harappan cities declined, new people began to move into the Indian subcontinent. They brought a proto-Indic language that became the basis for Sanskrit and the Indo-Aryan languages. They also brought new ways of life, fought, and mingled with, the earlier inhabitants. Their literature, passed on through generations, is the oldest literature of this subcontinent. The Ramayana and Mahabharata were written at the end of this period. 
836
837Every civilisation has its epics and heroes. Thus the Mahabharata and Ramayana reflect India in those times – people's struggles, anxieties and ideals. Writers have always drawn contemporary meaning from the epics. Dharamvir Bharati in Andha Yug describes the effects of a nuclear holocaust using the mythical brahmastra as a symbol. 
838
839Hear, O lords of heavenEach of you, from lofty heightsLooking on at this war – bear witness!Arjun drives to this -Here is the brahmastra!What have you done? Ashwatthama, inhuman one!Do you know what results from the brahmastra?If truly aimed, O beast, then for centuries to comeThe earth shall yield no fruit,Children shall be born crippled and diseasedWe shall be a race of dwarvesAll knowledge gathered by humans through the agesShall forever be lostIn the ears of wheat snakes will hissThe rivers flow with molten lavaThe sun will be eclipsed, the earth become barrenAshwatthama, inhuman one, what have you done?
840
841Nissim: Literature of the time mentions brahmstras and flying machines. But we find no proof that such things existed. Instead, we have found that in many ways, their technology was less advanced that that of the Harappans. Maitreyi: Yet we have evidence of seemingly minor things that were of immense value then – superior bronze and, later, iron weapons. Horse-drawn carts with lighter, spoked wheels so travel over rough terrain was easy. Harappan bullock-carts had heavy, solid wheelsHarappan axes were hafted, tied to handles, but this axe was socketed, fitting firmly, and so was more efficient for clearing the forests. Nissim: These 'small things' were to come together to lay the foundations of new cities. Knowing all this if we regard the epics as history, we shall do justice neither to our history nor to our epics. 
842
843Valley near Kargil, Kashmir
844
845The Indo-Aryan speakers first arrived with their cattle, through the Hindukush ranges. They came over centuries, 1500 BC onwardsTheir oldest book the Rig Veda indicates that they first settled on the banks of the Chenab, Sutlej and Saraswati rivers. Unlike for the Harappan period we find almost no material remains of this time, for these people wandered in search of pastures for their cattle. So their possessions were few. We call this entire period the 'Rig Vedic period'. The Rig Veda tells us they were cowherds. Cattle was their economic strength. They grew seasonal crops like barley – but milk, milk products and meat, including beef, was their staple diet. Their language reflects the importance of the cow. 
846
847Baramullah pasture lands
848
849The king was gopa or gopati, near relatives - gotra. Godhuli and samgaavan were times of day. Most interesting are their words for battle - gavishti, gaveshana, goshu, gavyu and gavyata. Clearly, when they fought, it was to acquire cow, sheep or goats. The Rig Veda is full of prayers for success in these raids. But it also contains hymns describing Rta - a concept of special significance for us. 
850
851Rta was a means of comprehending nature. The changing seasons, life and death, sunrise and sunset, every aspect of nature followed a pattern governed by the law of Rta. Science, too, aims to know the patterns in nature. Rta, then, contained a scientific attitude. Humans also obeyed Rta, as did the gods. But as people grew less dependent on nature and social and religious ties grew more important, Rta gradually became a social law. Its scientific aspect grew weaker and its religious aspect became stronger. In the Rig Vedic period, people's lives were close to nature. Most hymns praise the god Indra. They contain prayers for victory in battle, for cattle and for health. Some verses are in praise of bountiful nature - Varuna, Agni, Ushas are invoked
852
853Usha, daughter of heaven, has descended to earthAnd banished darknessUsha, bride of the sun, giver of foodMistress of wealth, she rules the treasuriesThe radiant horses appear, heralding her approachIn all directions, Usha rides her chariotTruthful among the true, great among the greatDivine among the godsWorshipped amond the worshippedUsha dispels the dark. All living creatures -animals too – await her comingO Usha, grant us animals, horses, grainAnd male progenyMay the gods watch over us
854
855By 1000 BC the Indo-Aryan speakers had spread as far as today's Punjab, Haryana, into parts of Rajasthan and west UP, to the banks of Yamuna. This was the 'Kuru-Panchala land' of the Mahabharata. The Yajur, Sama and Athava Veda, and parts of the Brahmanas and Upanishads were composed in this, the later Vedic period. The artefacts found at over 700 sites reveal that by then people had begun to settle down and practise farming. 
856
857National Museum, New Delhi
858
859These objects show an improved quality of life. Take this grey pottery found at most sites, known as Painted Grey Ware or PGW. These pots have fine walls and are very well fired. When tapped they give a metallic ring. To this day, in our homes such dishes, bowls and lotas are used for eating and drinking, and their shapes closely resemble these. In many large settlements of the time, we find iron. But iron was then used mainly for weapons. 
860
861Nissim: Iron - a metal, like copper, that gave a whole age its name - the Iron Age. And later made the use of stone almost redundant. Maitreyi: Unlike copper, silver or gold, iron is not found on earth in its pure form. But meteors from space sometimes contain pure iron mixed with nickel. Humans first learned of iron thus. Proof comes from northern Turkey, dating to about 5000 years ago. Nissim: But to extract iron from the ore is more difficult. Evidence indicates that 3500 or 4000 years ago, again in north Turkey, the Indo-European speaking Chalybis tribe discovered the process and kept it secret for centuries. 
862
863Maitreyi: When the Indo-Aryan speakers first arrived, they probably knew of iron - but not how to make it. Evidence from PGW sites shows that by 1000 BC they had learned how to extract iron. Nissim: Others, too, had made the discovery. The Indo-Aryan speakers had spread, by then, only upto the Yamuna. Other settlements like the megalithic cultures in central and south India also existed. It seems they had no contact with the Indo-Aryan speakers, yet iron is found at many megalithic sites. At a site in the Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu, Amrita saw some megalithic remains. 
864
865Sittanavasal, Pudukkottai District, Tamil Nadu
866
867By this village pond are megalithic graves, 3000 years old. They seem just stones lying around, till you look closely. It's a circle of laterite stones. In its centre is a granite rectangle, which has a different purpose. Excavations reveal a tiny room below with an earthen urn containing skeletal remains. The dead were buried along with their personal belongings - jewellery, pots, gifts and iron objects. This megalithic iron is already as old as the iron from Vedic sites. 
868
869How did they live? What were their homes like? We have no clear picture. 
870
871Bangles and beads, worn by a girl to look lovely. Tools of iron, that made life easier. Pots, which held food for those who toiled. And swords, that protected them all their lives but couldn't prevent their final end in these graves. 
872
873Nissim: Megalithic cultures existed in many parts of the world. In India they are of a later date. Amrita showed us stone-ringed burials, but megaliths of many types are found. Maitreyi: At most of these places we find iron. Iron is more difficult to extract than copper but iron ore is much more abundant than copper ore. So once people learnt to extract iron everybody could have iron tools. Nissim: Iron had such an impact that almost every region had its own iron-smelting artisans. Their traditions till survive in some places. Ramanathan went Bastar in Madhya Pradesh (now Chattisgarh). People here still erect megalith-type memorials to their dead. However these are no longer made of stone. They are of wood or even cement. 
874
875Kondagaon area, Bastar Dist. , Chasttisgarh
876
877In Kusma village, Ramanathan met Sonadhar, an ironsmith of the Madia tribe. 
878
879Kusma Village, Kondagaon, Bastar Dist. , Chattisgarh
880
881Ramanathan: How deep will you dig? Sonadhar: Five or six feetRamanathan: But not every rock contains ironSonadhar: How do you know? Ramanathan: By breaking the rock. Look, it has these streaks that are black and shiny. So this contains iron. 
882
883Ramanathan: Is this the furnace? Sonadhar: Yes. Let me show you what we do. Ramanathan: Is this some special clay?Sonadhar: Not reallyRamanathan: It's shaped to fit this? Sonadhar: YesThe slag collects at the bottom. We have to remove it from time to time. This pipe is called a kootan. It's placed here, and tied to a pair of bellows. And we seal off the mouth. Ramanathan: So no air can get in? Sonadhar: Exactly
884
885Iron from rock. Smelted in a simple mud furnace. I spent a unique night with these ironsmiths. Ramanathan: Why is air pumped in from this one point?Sonadhar: So that the air pressure and temperature keep going up, they must not fall. This is the ore we were collecting today. Ramanathan: I seeSonadhar: Now the furnace is ready to be fired
886
887I stayed up all night watching them take turns to operate the bellows so the temperature inside wouldn't drop. They can control only the fire. The colour of its flames is a useful guide, which is why they always smelt iron at night - so they can see the colours that are lost by day. Ramanathan: How much iron will finally get? Sonadhar: We'll feed in coal and ore twelve to fifteen times and get one and a half or two kilos of iron. Watch this - I was telling you how we remove the slag. Ramanathan: May I do it? Sonadhar: Of course. Stay on – in four years I'll teach you the work. Ramanathan: Will you keep me?Sonadhar: We'll even find you a girl to marry, if you like!
888
889Sonadhar: It's morning – time to break open the furnace. Ramanathan: How do you know it's time?Sonadhar: You can see – the colour of the flames has changed. Ramanathan: And you know the iron is ready? We know how much ore and fuel went in and we pumped the bellows constantly. Also look at the slag. 
890
891Why they broke open the furnace and took out the newly smelted iron, I, too felt happy. And I wondered - when people first made iron from rock, how did they feel? And what was their method?
892
893Deccan College, Department of Archaeology, Pune
894
895Furnace remains, found in Naikund village in Maharashtra, provide an answer. This megalithic furnace from 600 BC is similar to Sonadhar's. Experts from Deccan College, Pune, studied the remains and designed this model. This was the clay pipe to let in air. And here are the actual remains. The pipe they found, circular bricks that were part of the furnace, iron ore and slag, like I took out from the Bastar furnace. This is iron – and these, tools made of iron. The megalithic ironsmiths had a skilful technique. Iron melts at 1600ᵒ Celsius, but people then had no way of maintaining this high temperature. What did they do? The Naikund finds tell us. Impurities in iron melt at 1200ᵒ Celsius. So they raised the temperature enough for the impurities to melt and rise to the top, leaving pure iron below. This was beaten into implements. 
896
897Kusma Village, Kondagaon, Bastar Dist. , Chattisgarh
898
899Nissim: In the method we saw, iron is not melted but the impurities are melted off, and later the hot iron is beaten to remove remaining impurities. Thus wrought iron is obtained. This was the tradition of the Indian subcontinent. Maitreyi: Wrought iron is, however, inferior to bronze. It rusts, and sharp edges blunt easily. Iron is of value chiefly for making steel. Nissim: Steel is made by adding carbon to iron in the right proportion and manner. To make steel from wrought iron - the iron was heated along with coal powder and beaten to mix in the carbon. Maitreyi: The art of making steel was developed here after 300 BC, but iron had become common much earlier. At first, iron was used mainly for making weapons. But by 700 BC or so articles of daily use and agricultural tools began to be made of iron. 
900
901Dept. of Ancient History, Univ of Allahabad
902
903Around 700 BC a new kind of pottery became popular in the Ganga-Yamuna doab. Known as Northern Black Polished Ware or NBP, it is found along with iron tools. While the pottery reflects superior craftsmanship, we also learn that for these river bank settlers agricultural tools of iron had become important. 
904
905Later Vedic literature, and excavations, tell us that by the seventh century BC the Indo-Aryan speakers had crossed the forests of the Gangetic plains, reaching modern-day Bihar. After a period of farming, they discovered that transplanting paddy increases the yield. Their changing lifestyle owed much to iron. Iron was needed to cut down forests and plough the clayey soil of the Gangetic plains. The higher yields resulting from new tools and techniques did not always go to the farmer. Many regional states had emerged – republics, or those ruled by kings, or by tribal chiefs. Everywhere, the status of the king and brahmana grew, while that of the vish, commoner or farmer, fell. The Shatapatha Brahmana clearly states -The feast is for the Kshatriya, the subjects are his food. The more there is for him, the more shall this land prosper and grow. 
906
907Maitreyi: In our subcontinent, this age's literature gives the first direct evidence of people's thinking and science. Science is more than techniques - it's the underlying principles and questions. Nissim: Our information comes from the Vedangas - appendices to the Vedas. Texts like the Kalpsutra describe religious rituals, but works like the Jyotish Vedanga tell us about their astronomy etc. Maitreyi: The Shrautasutra gives instructions for fire rituals. Special bricks were needed for the fire altar or chiti. This gives us an insight into later Vedic geometry. Ranjan will tell us more. Ranjan: Based on what they desired, they made altars of different shapes, They might want cattle or a better harvest victory over enemies or to enter heaven - but every type of altar was built according to common rules. The area had to be 7. 5 square purusha. The purusha was based on the length of a man. It had to have five layers of 200 bricks each, but in no adjacent layers could bricks be laid identically. These rules seem simple, but posed many problems - how to make different shapes of the same area? The rules, though given by the religious lawbooks, let to problems of geometry, and the solutions were beyond the scope of these texts. Nissim: Instead, we must turn to an oral composition, the Shulbasutra Ranjan: Shulba, a cord or string. Two geometric shapes can be made with its help. We can stretch it and use it like a ruler to form a straight line, or hold one end firmly and rotate the other to make a circle. The altar-makers used cord for measurement. So their constructions were chiefly of the straight-edge and compass type. Like the right angle, the square, the rectangle. Or the area of two squares combined to make one square. A square that in area is the difference between two squares. A square equivalent in area to a rectangle. And all this just with the help of cords. 
908
909Ranjan: The Shulbasutra contains the oldest and clearest general formulation of Pythagoras' famous theorem. The theorem says that in any right-angled triangle, if the hypotenuse is c, then c2 = a2 +b2. The Greek proof taught in schools is based on the triangle. The Shulbasutra explains it using the rectangle. The theorem is expressed thus in the Shulbasutra : I'll now demonstrate what the sutra says . . . Take a rectangleOn two adjacent sides, make squaresDraw a diagonal through the rectangle and make a square on it. The Sutra says that the square on the diagonal equals in area both squares on the sides. In the Indian subcontinent the square, rectangle and circle were used, rather than the triangle. Even temple architecture reflects this. Maitreyi: Yes – look at these temple plans. We must also remember that the Shulbasutra gives no proofs of theorems. Some scholars hold that proofs existed but were not worked into the sutras. Yet it's true that because of this lacuna our geometry, unlike Greek geometry, never developed a logical system. Ranjan: The Shulbasutra also has another significance - geometry, it was thought, began with the need to measure land for taxation. Thus 'geo-metry'. But now another theory has emerged. Such measurement does not require great precision. Precision is needed more by the mason or carpenter, or joints won't sit right, walls will fall down. So geometry grew out of this other tradition to which the Shulbasutra is also linked. Its geometry must also owe something to those potters who made bricks of various shapes for the altars. 
910
911Ranjan, it's also been pointed out recently - the Indo-Aryan speakers hardly used baked bricks. But before them the Harappans used suck bricks on a large scale. So some scholars believe that unless the Harappan masonry tradition survived, the Shulbsutra could not have been composed. 
912
913Around 600 BC in the Gangetic plains cities came up one by one: Champa, Vaishali, Rajgriha, Shravasti, Ayodhya, Kashi. Among these was Kaushambi, the ruins of which stand near modern-day Allahabad. The earlier inhabitants of these regions were mostly defeated by the Indo-Aryan speakers and accorded a status inferior to the vish. But a synthesis, too, was on, as in languages. Everyday words like langal or plough, puja or prayer, pundit or priest, were adopted from local languages by the Indo-Aryan speakers. This fusion had its impact on the new urban life. A few centuries earlier, in the Rig Vedic period, people lived in small groups, knew each other - but all this would change. To reap nature's benefits, people must make some sacrifice. The forces of nature had to be appeased, if only with a poor man's cow! The later Vedic custom of sacrifice and offerings made the priests more and more powerful. And when people started growing rice, a big share of that, too, went to these middlemen. New kings emerged, new social classes, and a variety of professions. A thousand years after Harappa the first cities of the Iron Age came up in the Gangetic plains. 
914
915Kaushambi, Uttar Pradesh (near Allahabad)
916
917Ranjan: One of these prosperous new cities was Rajgriha, which had from the start an unquiet history. Here Ajatashatru killed his father Bimbisara to become king. Amrita: The city was surrounded by these five hills. Rajgriha owed its wealth to this road by which came the iron from Chhota Nagpur. These walls reinforced the natural hilly defence. Rajgriha controlled the iron trade. Two hundred years later, Kautilya was to say - “He who controls the mines controls the world. ” Ranjan: Rajgriha is a good example, as the first capital of powerful Magadha. With the use of iron, more was grown from the land, helping crafts to come up and new cities to emerge. But this wasn't all that happened. Amrita: The caste system was becoming more rigid. Discrimination was growing while the old tribal structures fell apart. Communities based on democratic values were destroyed. Ranjan: And the change was extremely rapid. While agriculture grew and added to prosperity, there was no dearth of exploiters and grabbers. People saw these changes in their own lifetimes. Society was in turmoil, especially in the cities where different traditions met and clashed. Self-seeking and extortion ruled. Amrita: People began to think about their situation. They asked questions, and sought new answers. What was happening in these cities?Ranjan: What new philosophies were emerging?
918
919Everything was changing But this was not the result of great warsNor was it the writ of petty kingsNor the influence of planets and starsBut behind the changes were ordinary thingsLike the spread of iron and growing of riceJust ordinary thingsThe tribes and republics with their assembliesLed lives that were fixed according to lawsSociety, nature, gods were all ruled by RtaBut then came the cities where selfishness was lawPower-mad kings emergedPriests, greedy for wealth multipliedConducting sacrifices and demanding grainIn the name of gods and goddessesAll rouns was a strange disquietA revolution was under waySomeone said -”Life is an illusion and struggle futile”Someone said -”There is no god in this worldNor reincarnation”Someone else said -”It makes no differenceGoods deeds or bad – for good is rewardednor bad deeds punished”But these philosophers preached in vainThey had no solutions, won no followersYet some thinkers kindled new faithThey brought hope to their timesAnd promise for the futureOne was MahaviraGautam Buddha the other
920----------------------------------------
921Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 5: The Age of Codification (Chandita Mukherjee) – Pad. ma
922
923https://pad.ma/CFZ/player
924https://pad.ma/CFZ/player
925Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 5: The Age of Codification
926
927Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:49:36; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 8. 594; Saturation: 0. 050; Lightness: 0. 340; Volume: 0. 322; Cuts per Minute: 4. 616; Words per Minute: 74. 400;
928
929Summary: This episode discusses Buddhism and its influence in the North and the Southern rulers and kingdoms. We travel from the Sarnath to Kanheri caves near Mumbai to understand our Buddhist past and then to Pondicherry where we encounter a trade relationship with Rome, to Tiruchirapalli to understand the water reservoir system and the Grand Anaicut and finally to the Saraswati Mahal Library in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu where we understand the texts of the times and their orthodoxy. 
930
931History of science and technology in India, 
932
933https://pad.ma/CFZ/96p. jpg
934
935https://pad.ma/CFZ/96p. jpg
936
937Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 5: The Age of Codification
938https://pad.ma/CFZ
939
940https://pad.ma/CFZ/256p. jpg
941Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:49:36; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 8. 594; Saturation: 0. 050; Lightness: 0. 340; Volume: 0. 322; Cuts per Minute: 4. 616; Words per Minute: 74. 400;
942
943Summary: This episode discusses Buddhism and its influence in the North and the Southern rulers and kingdoms. We travel from the Sarnath to Kanheri caves near Mumbai to understand our Buddhist past and then to Pondicherry where we encounter a trade relationship with Rome, to Tiruchirapalli to understand the water reservoir system and the Grand Anaicut and finally to the Saraswati Mahal Library in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu where we understand the texts of the times and their orthodoxy. 
944
945Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 5: The Age of Codification
946
947Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit Duration: 00:49:36; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 8. 594; Saturation: 0. 050; Lightness: 0. 340; Volume: 0. 322; Cuts per Minute: 4. 616; Words per Minute: 74. 400 
948
949Summary: This episode discusses Buddhism and its influence in the North and the Southern rulers and kingdoms. We travel from the Sarnath to Kanheri caves near Mumbai to understand our Buddhist past and then to Pondicherry where we encounter a trade relationship with Rome, to Tiruchirapalli to understand the water reservoir system and the Grand Anaicut and finally to the Saraswati Mahal Library in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu where we understand the texts of the times and their orthodoxy. 
950
951Maitreyi: As we saw last time the iron age cities came up around the 7th century BC. There was also a new ferment in ideas which lasted into the first few centuries AD. Nissim: This ferment is reflected in the new anti-orthodox schools of thought of the time. These had the courage to question the old texts, and to move away from well-trodden paths. Buddhism and Jainism were the important new schools. 
952
953In a sense, Buddhism began in the Gangetic plains – at Sarnath, near Varanasi. In a few centuries it had spread all over the land, and had become a new cultural link. 
954
955Sarnath, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
956
957After his enlightenment, it was here at Sarnath that Gautam Buddha preached his first sermon. Buddha understood the sorrows of people, weary of being oppressed by kings and priests and showed them a new path. Dominated for centuries by brahminical ritual,people found in Buddha's message a new freedom. In this unequal society, he founded sanghas which welcomed king and commoner alike. This way of life brought about a new openness. Buddha's teachings soon became very popular. In the Kashi region, as elsewhere an anarchy of ideas prevailed. Trade was looked down upon. Buddha brought some order to this scattered society. In the next few centuries, monks took his message to all corners of the country. But isn't it a paradox that this philosophy went on to become part of the rituals it had opposed?
958
959By now the cities of the Iron Age were flourishing. Some 250 years later, Ashoka adopted Buddhism. These lions in Sarnath Museum could stand for Ashoka's Maurya empire triumphing on all sides. Buddhism too was spreading within India, and abroad. Thus new directions opened up for trade as well. 
960
961Ashoka's rock edicts and inscriptions on slabs and pillars throughout his empire, are famous. One such inscription was recently discovered in Pangoraria village, Madhya Pradesh. 
962
963Pangoraria, Sehore Dist. , Madhya Pradesh
964
965This refers to Ashoka as “beloved of the gods”. All such inscriptions are in the local scripts. In the northwest, Kharoshti - a form of Persian. Further west, in Greek. Elsewhere, the Brahmi script is used for Pali or the local Prakrit languages. Interestingly, after Harappa the first evidence of a script is from this time. 
966
967Nissim: For centuries after writing became common teaching and learning was an oral tradition. Thus different versions of mythological tales are found in different times and places. Yet certain things did not admit of any change and these had to be remembered correctly. So a style was evolved that made memorizing easy. This was the sutra form - maximum information in as few words as possible. This method is of great scientific interest. One person who used this device successfully was Panini. Maitreyi: Panini, like Buddha, was a product of the new cities. He lived in Takshashila in the northwest and thought deeply about the structure of language. Indo-Aryan speech was then just bhasha or language, from which Sanskrit evolved. Panini composed a set of rules for grammar - the Ashtadhyayi (eight adhyayas or chapters) - a complex and unprecedented workShehnaaz has been studying its scientific aspects and has made some charts. 
968
969I'm no languages person, like Amrita! But I've really enjoyed doing this assignment. What is grammar? In a way, we all know. If I say -'The bird flied', you'll say, 'No, the bird flew'. What are these rules, so much a part of us? Panini found them out and expressed them in sutras. I'll attempt to convey a sense of his work using these charts I've made Panini's students first had to learn a sutra called the Shivastura. The legend is that Panini heard Shiva's damru and the sutra came to him. I've recorded a Sanskrit expert reciting it. Doesn't it sound like a drumbeat? Now let's hear a slower version. 
970
971Actually, it's just the alphabet – in a new order. Each group end with a consonant of the type we called 'inverted foot' letters, as children. I've chosen a tiny sutra - ikoyanachi. This is a rule for the combining of words - a formula, like all Panini's sutras. Ikoyanachi, split up, is Ikaha, yan, achi which means, ik becomes yan on meeting ach. Let's return to the Shivasutra Ikis the letters i to kHere they are in a vertical row - excluding the 'inverted foot' markers. Thus yan is the letters ya to na,That leaves ach, which we'll see on a new sheet. The letters a to ch are in the top row. Ik and yan remain in vertical rows. Let's pick any letter from ach - say, a This is how the ik group letters change on combining with the letter a. 
972
973Shehnaaz: Now we'll take a word - atyanta. This formed from two words - ati and anta, so i and a must combine. Ikoyanachi says i anda combine to form ya. Thus ati and anta, joined, become atyanta. The formula ikoyanachi contains 32 such rules. Maitreyi: And it's so brief! Students must have found these sutras easy to learn. Shehnaaz: Another thing. Along with rules, he has expections which are also rules. This applies to ikoyanachi too. Take the word ateendriya. It's the words ati and indriya combined. Ikoyanachi says i and i join to form ya so the word should be atyindriyaDoesn't that sound wrong?When we say ateendriya, what rule do we apply? Panini tells us - akaha savarne drighaha, a rule for the letters a to k of the Shivsutra. When any of these vowels, long or short, is repeated, this makes a long vowel. So i and i becomes ee. Thus akaha savarne dirghaha limits the ikoyanachi rule. Maitreyi: So he studied language, formulated its rules, arranged these in a sequence and, in this way, understood language as a logical system!Shehnaaz: Exactly. And this method can be used in any field. 
974
975Shehnaaz: To fully understand any subject, it's necessary and recognise the rules that link them. Maitreyi: Computer scientists today are therefore paying special attention to Panini's work. Dividing data into groups, and using markers to separate these groups, that's what we do in computer programming. Nissim: In his Ashtadhyayi, Panini described how people spoke. But later, the Brahmins named his bhasha 'Sanskrit',and gave it the status of an elite language. Panini's rules were made into fetters. The lower castes and women were denied the right to learn Sanskrit. The Prakrits which evolved from their speech became the forerunners of many modern languages. All Buddhist literature was in Pali and the Prakrits - the languages spoken by common people. These texts reflect how close Buddhism was to people's lives Take the Jataka tales, which began to be written in the second century AD. Here we sense the links between Buddhism and trade, and get a glimpse into the society of that time. 
976
977Nagarjuna Konda, Guntur Dist. , Andhra Pradesh
978
979Hear this ancient story not without gloryIn Kashi on a happy morn the Bodhisatva was rebornOne day by the road he sat lost in thought. He saw. . . a rat lying dead. . . Looking at the stars he said -“This rat to someone bold shall bring wealth untold”A young man heard his words and did what was properHe took the rat and sold it for a coin of copperSome sugar he bought and filled water in a potFor the flower pickers who were thirsty and hotThe flowers they gave him he sold in a triceEight coins he earned – a very good price!Then all night through a storm did rageThat laid the royal gardens wasteThe garderner was in a daze not knowing what to doThe young man, quick on the uptakeSeeking wealth and on the makeSaid, “I'll tell you what to doI'll clear away the debris tooBut will you be so good as to let me have the wood?And there the king's chef was looking for fuelThe youth seized his chance and sold him every branchAnother sixteen coins he gainsWealth increases with the use of brainsWord reached him one day that a ship was on its waySo the clever young man made an unusual planIn a horse-drawn carriage like a merchant of the townHe reached the shore dressed in the finest gownAnd spoke with such zeal, he struck a splendid dealAnd bought the cargo entire!The other merchants came – they'd never heard his name!“Guards – let us see who this rich man can be!”“In business so astute – the best, beyond dispute!”Each asked to be a partner, all wanted him as friendTwo lakhs was his profit – but that is not the end!With an offering of wealth to where the Wise One dweltHe went and explained how he had fortune gainedThe Bodhisatva thought – the lad is smart, in truthHe gave his daughter's hand in marriage to the youth!
980
981Maitreyi: In the small towns and cities of the time many merchants and traders were followers of Buddha. Buddhist monasteries were coming up with their help. Takshashila in the northwest, Sarnath in the Gangetic plains, Amravati in Andhra. Nissim: Travel was frequent, interaction was growing. Gradually the subcontinent as linked together. The Dakshinapath route opened up - merchants and preachers began to travel south. The Satavahana kingdom in the Deccan was like a bridge between north and south. In this region we find many Buddhist caves. 
982
983Kanheri Caves, Borivali, Mumbai
984
985Shehnaaz: Binda Paranjpe and I have come to see the Kanheri caves near Bombay. Binda teaches history and knows ancient languages. Binda: Only Prakrit! And I can read the Brahmi script. There's a Brahmi inscription here. It says here -The bhikshu Mitrabhuti has donated this cave for Sangarapralokan to the Buddhist sanghaShehnaaz: What is sagarapralokan?Binda: Sit, and look there! It means “to look at the sea”. In the old days there were many ports near Kanheri - Sopara, called Shurparaka, Kalya – known as Kalliena, Chaul, of which the old name was Chemulya. All these names are found in the inscriptions here. Many merchants lived in these port towns. Shehnaaz: What did those merchants have to do with the monks?Binda: They came here to make donations. 
986
987Shehnaaz: Who are these people?Binda: These are important donorsShehnaaz: So that's why many inscriptions refer to donations by merchants and craft guilds?Binda: Yes. The donations were for the monks' garments, cells, water tanks, medicines, books too. An inscription mentions merchant guilds from Sopara and Chaul. This refers to a donation by merchants of Sopara. Shehnnaz: And what does this say?Binda: It mentions a donation by a goldsmith from Chaul. Shehnaaz: Weren't these caves built during Satavahana rule?Binda: Yes, work began in Yagyashri Satkarni's time,in the 2nd century AD, and continued upto the 10th. All through this period, monks lived here. A woman called Damila donated this cave. And look – there's a podhi here as well. Shehnaaz: What's a podhi? Binda: A water tankShehnaaz: The status of women must have been high if could make donations?Binda: One can't say that about women in general, but yes, Buddhist nuns were respected. Shehnaaz: And artisans?Binda: Well, there are some names in these inscriptions - a goldsmith, a tanner, a blacksmith. But these were just a few wealthy peopleThe status of the rest must have been quite low. 
988
989Binda: This cave has a statue of the Avalokiteshwara. This is he, and here are Tara, and Bhrikuti. Shehnaaz: What is this Bodhisatva known for?Binda: He liberates humans from 'the eight great fears'Shehnaaz: What are those? Binda: One is a child's death. Then here – fear of wild elephants or hasti bhaya. Shehnaaz: Fear of lions! Binda: Yes, vyaghra bhaya. Below that, sarpa bhaya Shehnaaz: Fear of snakes. And this? It's a ship!Binda: Right. They feared shipwreck as well. 
990
991Maitreyi: Further south reigned the Cholas, Cheras, Pandyas. The sangam literature of the period, in Tamil, contains anecdotes of life in the south. We also learn that many Jain preachers and Buddhist monks from the north had reached there. Nissim: Overseas, as well as inland, trade was growing. Roman ships came here, and our ships voyaged as far as Egypt, China and the Southeast. Everyone wanted our silks, spices, ivory, peacocks - all of which our merchants exchanged for gold! Maitreyi: A Greek sailors' guide book of the time. Periplus of the Erythraean Sea - mentions many Indian ports, including Poduca. Artefacts found at Arikamedu village near Pondicherry, suggest this was ancient Poduca. 
992
993Puducherry
994
995Here, centuries ago, our ancestors waited for Roman ships to arrive. Where Pondicherry town stands today, they traded with Rome, Greece, Egypt. On the other bank of the Aryanakupam river, near its confluence, is the village of Arikamedu. Nothing remains here but for the ruins of this French colonial bungalow. Everything found in the digs is now in the museum. 
996
997These are amphora sherds. They still have traces of dried-up wine. -These marks here? -Right-How was this discovered? -Chemical analysisDon't you have an intact amphora?Not a genuine one- but we got a local potter to make one. Observe its shape – broad on top and ending in a point like a conch shell. There's another thing – see these seal impressions? These indicate that the pottery comes from Latium and Campania in the Roman Empire. Ranjan: Is there proof of local industries too? Yes, many beads were found – raw materials as well as semi-finished and polished beads. -So it was an industry? -A flourishing one!
998
999Ranjan: The Greeks wrote of their association with India but does our literature refer to this interaction?Guide: Yes – do you know of the Sangam literature?Tourist: You mean the ancient Tamil?Guide: There's a text, the Purananur which has a poem about lovely maidens wearing beautiful gold bangles and drinking Grecian wine. 
1000
1001The monsoon winds were used for swifter sailing - a secret perhaps first discovered by the Arabs. Yet it was a long voyage. To sail to Greece and back about a year. The local people exported many things but imported only glass, or amphorae of wine and oil. Pliny speaks of big Indian ships with a capacity of 3000 amphorae. Rome usually paid for its imports in gold. Such was the demand for Indian goods that the Roman treasury began to be depleted!Emperor Tiberius of Rome complained to his Senate -How to restore the simplicity of the old days?How do we deal with the items of female vanity,that rage for jewels and precious trinkets which drains the empire of its wealth, sending our money to foreign nations in exchange for baubles?
1002
1003Towns like Poduca in the south came up after the cities of the north, mainly because agriculture came up later. The south, unlike the north, lacks a perennial water supply - so agriculture grew only with irrigation facilities. Small irrigation works are typical of the southAmrita and Ramanathan toured the Kaveri delta. 
1004
1005Vijayagopalapuram, Thiruchirapalli Dist. , Tamil Nadui
1006
1007This is Vijayagopalapuram, in Tiruchirapalli district of Tamil Nadu. When I was in school, I'd often come here to visit my grandparents. They were farmers, and had to work very hard. They're not here any more. Later, the house, fields, coconut trees everything was sold.  But - these people aren't here to make a film about me! We've come to study the old irrigation methods. Isn't that so? Yes! Let's goThere are no snow-capped mountains here. In the north, the melting snows keep the rivers full. Few rivers – the Kaveri, Krishna, Godavari and Tamraparani – have water all year round. And the fields must have water!
1008
1009Building a reservoir may not be the solution. Some fields are higher and to lift water from a reservoir isn't easy. Stone Age people would cup water in their hands and toss it into their fields. Later, people invented a simple lever device. The etram saved human energy and made it easy to lift water to a height. I was asking them about their song. It says -A girl had promised to meet me hereI have grown weary, emptying buckets of waterI'm nearing the twentieth but she's yet to arrive!I'd never have imagined that when I grew up I'd be discussing the etram I saw every day on a science programme!
1010
1011Thirukkattupalli, Tamil Nadu
1012
1013Reservoirs are common in Tamil Nadu's villages. Ancient Tamil literature often alludes to these. Besides domestic uses they served for irrigation too. This use of stored water for irrigation is unique to this part of the subcontinent. Tamil Nadu's network of reservoirs and canals enabled higher crop yields. But who built, and looked after, these reservoirs? The answers point to certain unique features. 
1014
1015Village temples often have stone inscriptions to do with local matters, including instructions for the upkeep of some reservoir. They also refer at times, to eripatti lands, the revenue from which was used for the maintenance of the reservoirs. And a special committee, the eriwaram saw to it that all got an equal share, and those who wanted extra water paid for it. It also managed the income from the eripatti. 
1016
1017These brick and stone reservoirs are the result of community cooperation, the benefits of which went to everybody. 
1018
1019Nissim: The etram is useful when water is available when and where required, but below field level. But if there's no water when and where required then reservoirs come in handy. And for water available only at a distance there's a technique widely used in Tamil Nadu. Amrita: And it's based on the anaicut - an ordinary bund of mud or stone that farmers contruct on streams. Some of the water rises, and is taken by canals to distant fields. The Grand Anaicut on the Kaveri river uses the same principle, but on a huge scale. 
1020
1021Kallanai Dam, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu
1022
1023Ramanathan: We were travelling by the banks of the Kaveri. Here, at Kallanai, the river splits in two the Kaveri and the Vennar. To the north flows the Kollidam. This is the dam on the Kaveri and the sluice gates are open today. Amrita: So today the farmers on that side will get water. The Kaveri delta sloped northward and, in the east, towards the sea. Here, near Tiruchirapalli, the river splits in two - the somewhat low-lying Kollidam in the north, and the higher, main Kaveri in the southFurther downstream, near Kallanai, the Kaveri splits again to forn the Vennar and the Kaveri. This is where, today, the Grand Anaicut stands. But the concrete and steel hide an older dam below. A dam that was built in the 2nd century in Karaikal Chola's time. 
1024
1025It was an attempt to solve some problems caused by the Kaveri. When the Kaveri was in flood, the flood waters flowed into the low-lying Kollidam, near Kallanai. These waters cut a channel that grew deeper each year. The Kaveri's normal waters would also, at this rate, have drained into the Kollidam. And the farmers would have lost this water! So they paved the channel to stop it getting deeper. Then where the breach was, they build a 300m long and 15 or 20m wide wall of stone. The flood waters still flowed into the Kollidam, but there was no danger of further soil erosion. The height of the wall was 5 or 6 metres - enough to contain the usual amount of water. It wasn't made higher or the flood waters would simply have breached the bank elsewhere. 
1026
1027Kallanai Dam, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu
1028
1029Ramanthan:This Grand Anaicut of concrete and steel was built, after all, over the old stone and mud dam. First the British improved it, then we did using modern techniques. Amrita: It's like that saying we have - “The son's mansion, where stood the father's hut”. 
1030
1031Nissim: This period saw the spread of Buddhism, growth of trade, and rise of cities in the south. Trade served also as a vehicle for the exchange of ideas. The new school of thought of the early centuries BC now came into their own. Writing was known, but was perhaps confined to public records and long distance communication. Learning was still based on the oral tradition and so Panini's sutra style proved ideal for containing and disseminating knowledge. Maitreyi: Every subject was being thus codified - the religious lawbooks, politics, medicine, maths, astronomy. Every school of thought to grow popular later, had its roots in the sutra compositions of this time. These oral sutras were written down much later. The manuscripts are preserved in a handful of libraries. At the Saraswathi Mahal Library in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, many texts of the period may be found. 
1032
1033Saraswati Mahal Library, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu
1034
1035Amrita: Every book in this library is hand-written. Some manuscripts are 1,000 years old, others were written barely two centuries ago. The oldest book here is the Phalwati written on palm leaves about 1,000 years ago. Shehnaaz, look – they use oil to preserve the books. Shehnaaz: These are palm leaves-What oil is that? -Lemon grass oilAmrita: I'll go and look at the Natyashastra manuscripts. Shehnaaz: And I'll see if I can talk to somebody
1036
1037Shehnaaaz: Do you speak Hindi? Librarian: A littleShehnaaz: May I ask you some questions? How old is the library? Librarian: It goes back to the Chola and Naik dynasties. It was begun in the thirteenth century and was rebuilt in the eighteenth under the Maratha ruler, Serfoji Maharaj. Shehnaaz: Are there other such centres in India?Librarian: Yes – but none so old
1038
1039Books one had heard about since childhood - to see them all together is like finding treasure. Patanjali's Yogasutra, the Manusmriti, Kautilya's Arthashastra, and there on the table - the Sushruta Samhita of ayurveda and the six major Indian philosophies. Other books, that took shape 2,000 and more years ago. Of course, all these were written down much later, and copies were made from time to time. Some manuscripts are just one or two centuries old. That ancient past still casts its shadow on society - the way we think, our customs, ideas about caste. In recent times our society has undergone fundamental changes and our experiences are perhaps different. But until not so long ago the brahminical tradition dominated this land. Like the Manusmriti here says -She must, in childhood, be protected by her father,in youth, by her husband and, after he dies,live under her son's jurisdictionUnder no circumstances may a woman be given freedom
1040
1041Nissim: Most works of the time were religious texts. Even scientific works reflect the new orthodoxy. But two texts are almost free from these signs - Kautilya's Arthashastra, and the ayurveda books. Maitreyi: The Arthshastra is concerned with the science of society and the art of politics. But this knowledge was finally, for a select few. It was meant only for princes. It was different with ayurveda which is what we'll discuss the next time!
1042----------------------------------------
1043Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 6: Ayurveda & Astronomy (Chandita Mukherjee) – Pad. ma
1044
1045https://pad.ma/CGA/player
1046https://pad.ma/CGA/player
1047Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 6: Ayurveda & Astronomy
1048
1049Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:49:14; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 349. 232; Saturation: 0. 062; Lightness: 0. 400; Volume: 0. 261; Cuts per Minute: 5. 341; Words per Minute: 97. 709;
1050
1051Summary: This episode captures the traditions of Ayurveda and highly developed concepts of Astronomy. We start with investigating the Sushruta and Charaka traditions of Ayurveda and comparing it to the practises of a tribal medicine man in Bastar. Flourishing trades and techniques encouraged science; scholars like Aryabhata wrote about sine tables, pi, and the path of the planets, yet this knowledge was controlled. 
1052
1053History of science and technology in India 
1054
1055https://pad.ma/CGA/96p. jpg
1056
1057https://pad.ma/CGA/96p. jpg
1058
1059Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 6: Ayurveda & Astronomy
1060https://pad.ma/CGA
1061
1062https://pad.ma/CGA/256p. jpg
1063Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:49:14; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 349. 232; Saturation: 0. 062; Lightness: 0. 400; Volume: 0. 261; Cuts per Minute: 5. 341; Words per Minute: 97. 709;
1064
1065Summary: This episode captures the traditions of Ayurveda and highly developed concepts of Astronomy. We start with investigating the Sushruta and Charaka traditions of Ayurveda and comparing it to the practises of a tribal medicine man in Bastar. Flourishing trades and techniques encouraged science; scholars like Aryabhata wrote about sine tables, pi, and the path of the planets, yet this knowledge was controlled. 
1066
1067Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 6: Ayurveda & Astronomy
1068
1069Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit Duration: 00:49:14; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 349. 232; Saturation: 0. 062; Lightness: 0. 400; Volume: 0. 261; Cuts per Minute: 5. 341; Words per Minute: 97. 709 
1070
1071Summary: This episode captures the traditions of Ayurveda and highly developed concepts of Astronomy. We start with investigating the Sushruta and Charaka traditions of Ayurveda and comparing it to the practises of a tribal medicine man in Bastar. Flourishing trades and techniques encouraged science; scholars like Aryabhata wrote about sine tables, pi, and the path of the planets, yet this knowledge was controlled. 
1072
1073Bharat ki Chhap: Episode 6
1074
1075Ayurveda and Astronomy (300 -700 A. D. )
1076
1077Sanchi Stupa, Raisen Dist. , Madhya Pradesh
1078
1079This is the story of Jeevak the court physician of Magadha. He late became a follower of Buddha. An account is given in the Buddhist work Vinayapeetak. The story goes like this:Long ago, in the city of Rajgriha, lived a courtesan. Her name was Shalvati. One day, Shalvati gave birth to a son. But fear of disgrace made her abandon the child. A prince was passing that way. His gaze fell upon the newborn, whom he picked up, took to his palace and brought up. Thus, his name came to be Jeevak which means 'the living one'. On growing up, Jeevak learnt the truth about his birth. He resolved to be dependent on the prince no longer, but to learn a skill to earn his own living. In Takshashila, then, lived a physician, an acharya who was renowned far and wide. Jeevak went to him and said: “Make me your disciple”. Thus, for seven years Jeevak served his teacher. Finally, one day, he asked his guru: “When will my learning be complete?”The acharya gave him a shovel and said: “Traverse a yojan in each direction around Takshashila and bring me an object that is not medicinal”. Jeevak did as bidden and came back disappointed, unable to find anything, anywhere, not medicinalThe acharya told him: “Jeevak, you have passed your test. You have understood that there is nothing in the world that is not medicinal. Your education is now complete”. And this is the basic principle of ayurveda - Na anaushadham kinchit. 
1080
10811. Chandita: Suhaila relates the story of Jeevak. 
1082
1083The story talks about every material being medicinal. “Na anaushdham kinchit” - nothing is not medicinal. 
1084
1085Dept of Ayurvedic Medicine, Univ of Pune
1086
1087In order to understand the tenets of ayurveda I met Dr. Subhash Ranade of Pune University. Dr. Ranade: The basic principles of ayurveda are the same in all its schools of thought because these principles are immutable. Amrita: Such as the belief that all things in the world have medicinal value?Dr. Ranade: Yes. Na anaushadham kinchitAmrita: How is this theory proved in the Charaka Samhita?Dr. Ranade: Charaka says the body undergoes constant changes. Whatever we eat or drink, and the air we breathe, are made up of the panchmahabhootasAmrita: Doesn't panchmahabhootas refer to the elements - Earth, water, fire, air and sky?Dr. Ranade: Yes. These are assimilated by the body and undergo a transformation. One portion is converted into dhatu i. e. , blood, flesh and bones, the rest is changed to mal, or waste products like urine, sweat and tridosh. By tridosh we mean gas, bile and phlegm. Amrita: So the function of the medicine is to reduce dohsa and increase dhatu? Dr. Ranade: Not really. Even a healthy body needs mal in the right proportion. Imbalance creates illness, such as physical weakness. This occurs when there is a reduction in muscular tissue and phlegm. In such a case, the patient is advised to eat meat or items like wheat and the urad lentil, which increase phlegm. Or he may be advised not to exert himself. Amrita: Thus, the right medicines increase those substances needed by the body and reduce those which are in excess. This might explain why ayurveda offer so many remedies for an illness, and views medicine as an art. Dr. Ranade: Yes. You're right. You've understood the dictum Na anaushadham kinchit. The whole world is composed of the panchmahabhootas. And every item in this world can prove to be of medicinal value in some circumstance or another. 
1088
10892. Amrita asks Dr. Ranade about this and then the “Panchamahabhootam” and “Doshas”. 
1090
1091Nissim: Ayurveda means the science of life. It is the oldest system of medicine in our country. Jeevak was Buddha's personal physician and was renowned in his time. Thus, ayurveda was already popular in Buddha's time. Of the two compilations or Samhitas of ayurveda the Sushruta is concerned with surgery and the Charaka, with other methods. Maitreyi: Historians are of the opinion that these compilations date back to the 2nd century A. D. But the knowledge they contain is far more ancient. Nssim: In recent times, during our freedom struggle ayurveda received a new impetus. And today India has many ayurvedic hospitals and colleges which carry out research in new medicines and methods. 
1092
1093Gujarat Ayurved University, Jamnagar
1094
1095We are at the Gujarat Ayurvedic University to understand ayurveda better. Ranjan is exploring the Sushruta tradition i. e. ayurvedic surgery. I am studying the Charaka tradition i. e. treatment through medicines. Doctor: Here we see one kind of treatment being carried out. The patient is given a head massage and prepared for treatment. Shehnaaz: What is the ailment?Doctor: The patient has been troubled for a long time by colds and headaches. So we are administering the nasyakarma treatment. Eight drops of medicine are put into each nostril. This method is used to cure migraine and other such problems. This girl's name is Kanchan. Her illness is pseudo hyper-trophic muscular dystrophy. The muscles have become very hard. It's a congenital disease, difficult to cure. Shehnaaz: How do you treat it?Doctor: We prepare the child for treatment. Herb are put in a cloth bag. This is known as tal. Then, the child is massaged with bala oil. Five equal parts of bala and kwath are heated in milk. Bags of rice are used to apply the medicine. Shehnaaz: Are these medicines grown by you or obtained elsewhere?Doctor: The plants and herbs that we use are found in the forests and hills. The tribals collect these to sell in market. That's how we get them. 
1096
1097We see various treatments of Ayurveda at the Gujarat Ayurved University, Jamnagar. 
1098
1099The hospital collects the medicines from forests so we transition to Bastar. 
1100
1101At Bastar we understand a much earlier form of Ayurveda which is being done by a local medicine man, Ganjuaramiji. We go to his house, but he wasn’t around and had gone to the forest to look for some plants. We found him in the forest with his grandson. You can see that his eyes are always on the ground. He also collects the fine mud from a termite hill to use as ointment for a patient. 
1102
1103Ramanathan and I had met Ganjuaramji, a medicine man, in Bastar. He was looking for some specific plants in the forest. A boy had fallen off a cycle and broken his leg. Ayurveda stresses the worth of tribal and folk traditions. In this respect, it was unique in its time. The Sushruta Samhita says: “To recognise those herbs useful in medicine the doctor must seek the help of those who collect fruits, leaves and roots from the forest. People such as hunters, shepherds and the like” While walking through the forest we saw that he was very alert to anything useful as medicine. Leaves, bark, herbs - even soil from a termite hill. We then went to the child's house. Ganjuaramji set the bone, applied herbs and tied on a bamboo splint. But sprinkling liquor to scare away demons was also part of the treatment. Knowledge based on observation and experience coupled with black magic seems strange, but a common phenomenon. 
1104
1105Kusma Village, Kondagaon, Bastar Dist. , Chattisgarh
1106
11072. Ayurveda is based on tribal medicine and other folk traditions. The ayurvedic compilers like Charaka and Sushruta, though they were Brahmins, their compilations were extremely practical and empirical. They were based on the everyday common occurrences of people. They are different from other treatise of astronomy, music etc. Those were rigid and prescriptive unlike the Ayurvedic compilations, which were based on everyday give and take. 
1108
1109Sushruta Samhita says that the existence of the soul is immaterial to the Ayurvedic practitioner because they should work within the “Panchmahabhootas”. 
1110
1111When Brahmanical orthodoxy returned, one of the ways to put down practitioners of Ayurveda was to say they are impure. Ayurvedic practitioners were banned from being part of Brahmin rituals. 
1112
1113Nissim: Ayurveda never hesitated to adopt new ideas from tribals like Ganjuaramji, or from folk traditions. Other disciplines at that time were more rigid being either theoretical, like grammar, or tied to Brahmanical ritual, like astrology. They were far removed from people's common, everyday knowledge. But ayurveda was on discipline very close to daily life. Maitreyi: Yes. It was necessary for the physician or vaid to examine minutely every aspect of nature, to study natural substances and their effect on the body and also to use them. He could thus effectively treat diseases. Nissim: According to the Charaka Samhita there are three ways to understand disease. The teachings of elders, personal observation, and diagnosis based on logic and analysis. In fact, older teachings must be verified by observation and analysis. Maitreyi: Stress on observation ad experiment is also the basis of modern science and is, obviously, of utmost importance in surgery. This is true also of Sushruta tradition. 
1114
1115Gujarat Ayurved University, Jamnagar
1116
1117The Sushruta Samhita says that  a practitioner should not think of any substance outside of the panchamahabhootas. Thus, the existence or non-existence of the soul is immaterial to the practitioner. The Charaka tradition survived for centuries,while the Sushruta tradition slowly died out. Sushuruta included knowledge of anaesthesia, asepsis, various kinds of instruments and their functions, and the rigorous training of students. The various achievements include plastic surgery, removal of cataracts, amputation of parts of the body and other such surgical operations. 
1118
1119Ayurveda can be very effective in certain areas of surgery take the kshara-sutra, used in treating fistulae. The sutra, or thread, has an enzymolitic action. The patient does not even need anaesthesia. The operation takes just five minutes and the patient can go back immediately to his work. A few weeks of treatment can cure the patient completely. 
1120
11213. We show here the fistula operation with the “Kshar sutra”. People objected to this saying why are you shooting something like this, its repulsive. But western medicine has not found a cure for fistula. 
1122
1123To make the kshara thread used in this operation, the gum like secretion of a common cactus is extracted, and applied to the thread. And then the ash of the apmar plant is smeared on it. Then turmeric. After ten or twelve such coatings the kshara thread is ready for use. In ayurveda, this thread is the instrument for the fistula operation. Dr. Kulwant Singh is working with various other para-surgical methods such as the use of leeches. Today, many experiments are being conducted in ayurveda, and some good results are being achieved. The need, now, is to subject these techniques to thorough scientific analysis. 
1124
1125Maitreyi: So ayurveda was a school of knowledge in which questions based on one's experience could be raised. Learning from the guru was important, but so was the student's own observation and inference. To cure the sick and to increase his own learning, the doctor had to mix with all castes and communities. To understand the body better he had to dissect human and animal corpses. Nissim: But this type of openness could not flower in the orthodoxy of the next era when people from different castes could not mix, eat or drink together or even touch one another. Education was limited to a few from the upper classes - essentially, the brahmans. And the teacher's word was law. Maitreyi: In these conditions, debate was inevitable. By 500AD, the status of doctors had declined. All the orthodox texts held food given by doctors to be polluting. Physicians were seen to be on par with hunters, thieves, eunuchs and outcasts. Manu even said that any offerings to a doctor turned into pus. Like trading, acting, thieving and service under a low-caste person, the physician's work was seen as unfit for a brahmin. Nissim: All this was to happen in the next few centuries. In the second and third centuries AD when the Charaka-Sushruta texts were compiled, there had been many upheavals in society. Drought in Central Asia had caused many people from there to come to India - Shunga, Shaka, Kushana, Huna. Battles, and then gradual assimilation, gave rise to a new city culture in North India. 
1126
1127Government Museum, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh
1128
1129This famous headless statue of the Kushana king, Kanishka, is at Mathura Museum. It has a Brahmi inscription: “Emperor, king of kings, son of gods, Kanishka”. The Kushana empire was at its peak during his reign parts of today's Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and Central Asia were included in it. In India, it had spread southwards to Sanchi and eastwards to Kashi. Mathura enjoyed the status of regional capital. 
1130
1131Many new cities and towns came up. The atmosphere was conducive to trade. Hanidcrafts flourished. Till this period, such carving had been done mainly on wood and ivory. But during the 2nd century artisans experimented with red sandstone. The Mathura school of sculpture offers some beautiful examples of the human form. 
1132
1133City culture under Kushanas was far more developed than in any period before or, for a long time, after. The literature of the age refers to more than seventy trades - goldsmiths, jewellers, sculptors, oil and wine makers, acrobats, dancers, singers, musicians, traders, courtiers, clerks in the law courts etc. 
1134
1135Sonkh, Mathura Dist. , Uttar Pradesh
1136
1137There was a kind of freedom in this city life. For their personal work or on state duty,people travelled by caravan to distant places. There was an openness in society. In Kushana times, the caste system was not as rigid as it was to become by the Gupta period. Those aspiring to a better life could hope to achieve it. City planning was geared to serve a growing population. This is evident from ruins such as these at Sonkh, near Mathura. Boundary walls, separate zones for palaces, temples and markets - all this was a necessary part of city planning. Also, public amenities had to be provided - rest houses, roads, canals, drains, wells and tanks. 
1138
1139A huge water reservoir of this time has been found at Shringaverpur, near Allahabad. 
1140
1141Shringverpur, Allahabad Dist. , Uttar Pradesh
1142
1143Ramanathan: A strange thing about archaeology is that often, during excavations, one doesn't find what one is looking for. But one does find a lot of things one isn't looking for. Like this water reservoir at Shringaverpur, on the Ganga. They dug here as the place is named in the Ramayana, but the reservoir has no connection with the epic. It dates back to the Kushana age or a little earlier, which makes it 2000 years old. All year round it provided water for some 15 to 20,000 city dwellers. At that time, the river was some distance away. Thus the tank could be filled only when the river was in flood. Amrita: Why only the flood waters? Why didn't they change the course of the river itself?Ramanathan: Firstly, the Ganga is very deep. Then, its banks are well above the water level. It is difficult to draw water from such a riverBut those people did a unique thing. They noticed this small gully that joined the Ganga. Every year, when the Ganga was in flood the water in the gully flowed backwards. So they cut a canal into this natural drain. During a flood, water from the gully was brought via the canal to the reservoir. 
1144
1145Ramanathan: The muddy flood waters would enter this round chamber, then flow into the second round chamber. The larger mud chunks, settled at the bottom of these chambers. The partially filtered water flowed into the first tank. Amrita: But why not one big tank instead of so many?Ramanathan: The fact is that even this tank filtered out the remaining sand. For this finer sand to settle, it was necessary for the water to flow more slowly, and stay longer, in this tank. Amrita: And how did they achieve this?Ramanathan: The water entered this first tank from here. The path is crooked and there are steps - this reduced the force of the flowNor is the tank a perfect rectangle. This tank is broader at the point where the water flows into the main tank. Also, look at these sloping walls because of these, the tank becomes wider towards the top. Thus the water entering this tank had an increasingly wide spread as the tank filled up. Amrita: So this reservoir was more or less like the filtration system in today's cities?Ramanathan: Yes, that's right. Hydraulic engineers, too, have said that the basic principles of this reservoir were the same as those we apply today. 
1146
1147Amrtia: Look, from here you can see how huge the reservoir is. Ramanathan: Yes, after all, it did meet the annual water needs of about 15,000 people. 
1148
1149Ramanathan: In the course of excavations here, artefacts dating from Kushana to British times were found in different layers. Amrita: It's really deep, isn't it? Ramanathan: Yes, it is
1150
1151We read and hear about so many things - but to stand before this reservoir is an overwhelming experience. I was always aware that the pyramids of Egypt, the cities of the Indus, and the Taj Mahal were formidable achievements. But I thought of them only as symbols of culture. The idea of science never entered my mind. I've always associated science with the modern age
1152
1153The following day as we passed through Shringverpur preparations were on for the Ekadashi fair. In colourful costumes, people from far-off villages had come to this place mentioned in the Ramayana for a dip in the Ganga. It's strange that one mention in the Ramayana makes Shringverpur a place of pilgrimage. But the presence, in the same place of a reservoir. . . which is an engineering feat is not known or given any importance. It does not find mention even in folklore. 
1154
1155Didarganj Yakshi
1156
1157Centuries ago in the Mauryan reignThe centre controlled allBut by the advent of the Gupta age,the land split into holdings, big and smallMore land came under the ploughRentals were increasedTaxes to landlords, money to the kingsWere the farmers forced to payNew seeds were sownFood habits changedNew crops were grownTransforming the fields completelyWheat, rice and barleywere already widely knownSugarcane, coconut, pumpkin, and pearand betel-leaf now came to every homeThen came superior bronzeAnd iron that would not rust or spoil -that could deeper plough the soilAnd help to win warsThe objects had strengthas well as delicacyTheir marvellous artisanryspread to many industriesTechniques grew fineras in cotton and silk weavingAlong with the spice and pepper trade,textiles too were flourishingThe changing ambiencealso helped science
1158
1159Nissim: You may be wondering about the new person in the song. Raghunandan from Bangalore - he has a Ph D in nuclear physics. Ramanathan had some family problems and had to leave us midway and go back to Madras. Maitreyi: Why is this table so hard? And the pages of this book so flexible? Why is this mug brown? And the sky so blue? Why does this orange smell so sharp? Do I have an orange in my hand at all? Yes, I do - because my senses tell me that it is really there. These are questions of science and of philosophy. Science demands a worldview that trusts the senses. If I have no faith in my senses, then I cannot accept the existence of anything outside of myself. And if there is no world outside oneself, what can be the purpose of science? What meaning, then, can science have?Nissim: During the Gupta age the influence of Buddhism was declining. And Brahmanism was in the ascendant. Buddhists and Brahmans were engaged in philosophical disputes. Nor were groups within the same religion united. Maitreyi: These disputes were varied. But from the viewpoint of science we need only to know how they regarded the world, and their views on acquisition of knowledge. Those schools of thought that upheld logic, inference and observation can, broadly, be called materialist e. g. Nyayavaisheshika. Nissim: If these had held sway then it would have been good for science in opposition were the idealists. To them, knowledge through the senses was illusory, and only revealed knowledge was true. These thinkers included the Vedantiks. Maitreyi: And in our society it is the Vedantiks who triumphed. The Nyayavaisheshikas and Vedantiks both belong to the Vedic tradition. There also existed another school of thought - that of the Lokayata. The Lokayatiks considered metaphysical debate futile. They were ultra-materialist. Their sayings reflect the pragmatism of daily life. They were called Lokayatik also because they did not believe in any lok or world other than this lok. 
1160
1161Nissim: This was the time when Buddhist universities like Nalanda flourished - repositories of knowloedge for the entire societyStudents from all over Asia came to study here. They studied subjects like ayurveda, chemistry, astronomy and mathematicsphilosophy too, of course. And, as in universities today, there was plenty of debate and discussion. 
1162
1163Nalanda, Bihar
1164
1165What is this? A tree?I think there is a tree here. I can see it, touch it and taste it – its fruits, that is. I can also smell it and hear its leaves rustle in the wind. Your senses see and experience the tree. So, the tree exists. Why then this doubt, my idealist friend?Because, my materialist friend, our senses often deceive us. They hide the truth from us - rather then lead us to it How? Here we go again! Does the tree exist or not? But how does it concern us Lokayatiks? We care only for its fruit, and its wood for fuel. Did you hear a sound? Must be the leaves rustlingLeaves rustling, eh?Now watch the fun!What happened?Wasn't I telling you how our senses can deceive us? I mistook this rope for a snake. My senses told me there was a snake here when there was no snake. I am far from knowing the truth. But I do know that I'm on the right path. Oh yes, on a path paved with snakes!Look, I'll give you yet another example-Do you see this well? -YesWere this well not here would you still see it? NoThus you see a well because it is here. It is essential that whenever you see a well, there must be a well present. UndoubtedlyBut when you dream of a well?There is no well when you wake up. This conscious life of ours is also like a dream. And you cannot prove that this well really exists. I know that my dream of a well is an illusion because, on waking, my sense and reason tell me that it was a dream. This proves that the senses and reason tell the truth. But when you refer to your dream as illusion, you too are relying on your sense and reason. How, then, can you call them illusory? Or say they deceive us?  You are contradicting your own ideas!All right, let's assume the well exists!But is there water in it?Oh no! These Lokayatiks won't stop bothering us. 
1166
1167Raghu: One thing is clear - Science is materialist in its philosophy as its concerns are the things of the world. What they're made of, how, the principles involved. Amrita: Yes. And if we consider the world an illusion, we destroy the very basis of science. Ranjan: To doubt the senses or reason is to doubt science's method. Idealism is incompatible with science. Raghu: But the idealists have always wonRanjan: Because they were backed by those in power! Amrita: This could be a major reason for the repeated setbacks to science in our society. Raghu: Precisely, in the Gupta period, poets like Kalidas were honoured, while astronomers like Aryabhata were not. It is believe Aryabhata even taught at Nalanda. Astronomy was one of the subjects. Between 300 and 700 AD, astronomy flourished. 
1168
1169Venu Bappu Observatory, Kavalur, Vellore Dist. 
1170
1171Aryabhata says in a riddle: “When 3 yugas and 7 years had passed 7 times -  23 years before that date was I born”. Those who understand Aryabhata's astronomy solve the riddle thus:Aryabhata composed this in 499 AD, and he was 23 years old at the time. People of all cultures have gazed at the night skies and asked: “Where does the sun hide at night?” Millennia later, new questions arise, such as: “Why do independently moving planets sometimes come together in a particular formation?” Today, we want to know how stars are born and how they die. This will tell us about the birth of the universe - a fundamental question in modern astronomy. 
1172
1173The questions, and the answers, indicate the level of science in a given age. They reveal how humans perceived themselves and their place in the universe. This is why we need to understand ancient astronomy. Aryabhata's era saw a major change in Indian astronomy. He, himself, gave it a new direction. The new astronomy came to be called Siddhanta astronomy. Its maths was more developed than in the old astronomy. This progress had many aspects - the most interesting being the motion of planets. Planets are different from stars. The stars, it was believed, were fixed in the sky, and the entire sky revolved at a fixed speed. So the stars seemed to be moving, yet their distances and paths were constant. The planets, however, seemed to move erratically e. g. Mars. Here is a computer-aided diagram of the path of Mars as seen by Aryabhata over 7 months in 499 AD. Clearly, there must be a reason for this strange route. There must be some law behind it. How did explain it? Assume that this is the earth, and this, the expanse of sky, and this – Mars. Let me explain it more simply Earth -Sky -MarsIf Mars is fixed in the sky and the sky revolves at a uniform speed then Mars' path becomes circular. But we have seen that this is not so. How, then, was the problem solved? With the concept of the epicycle which came to India from Greek astronomy. Imagine a small circle moving uniformly on the circumference of a larger circle. Simultaneously it is, itself, rotating like a wheel. Now, take a dot on the circumference of the small circle and observe its path. Notice how the dot slowed down, turned, changed its path and is again moving forward - exactly like the movement of Mars. Aryabhata adopted and developed this Greek concept. He, too, took the earth as the centre - but saw the sky as static, while the earth rotated on its own axis. By his calculation of the earth's rotation, a day comprises 23 hrs, 56 mins and 4. 1 secs. The figure accepted today – 23 hrs, 56 mins, 4. 09 secs. A difference of just 0. 009 seconds. 
1174
1175Aryabhatiya is our earliest work of higher mathematics. Aryabhata was probably the first to create sine tables. He evolved a simple method to find integral solutions to indeterminate equations. He gave the ratio of circumference to diameter as 3. 1416. This matches today's value of pi upto 4 decimal points. Interestingly, Aryabhata says this value is approximate. 
1176
1177Maitreyi: Yet Brahmagupta, 150 years later, criticises Aryabhata. Amrita: Oh, Brahmagupta! He spoke of Rahu-Ketu and for him astrology- Raghu: But even before him Varahamihira spoke of Rahu-Ketu to explain eclipses. Yet he, too knew Aryabhata's work. As for astrology, it came to India from Greece. Amrita: But it made a home here, didn't it?Raghu: Yes. That is why a third of Varaha's Panchasiddhantika is just astrology. Maitreyi: I have read somewhere that as astronomy progressed, so did astrology. Shehnaaz: How is that possible?Maitreyi: Look, when did astrology begin? When people began to see coincidences as causes. Isn't that so? There are several examplesFor instance, the rising of the star Sirius in Egypt coincided with the seasonal flooding of the Nile. So people thought that Sirius caused the flooding. That planets and stars affect earthly events - once this misconception was born, that was it! The more people began to understand the back and forth movements of planets, the more predictions they made about human lives. Nissim: By Brahmagupta's time orthodoxy had increased. This must have influenced the young Brahmagupta. When he was 30 years old(in the 7th century) he opposed Aryabhata on the basis of the scriptures. But it appears that in old age his understanding of astronomy and of maths grew deeper, and he was able to look afresh at these matters. At the age of 66, in his Khandakhadyika, he praised Aryabhata. Shehnaaz: Scholars of the time must have had constraints. To gain acceptance in society they had to combine science with the non-scientific. Otherwise we might not even have heard of them today. Ranjan: And, possibly, they believed in these things. After all, they were part of that society. Raghu: That is why I consider Aryabhata unique. Apart from the invocations that begin and end the Aryabhatiya, non-scientific matters are not mentioned at all. Nissim: Observation, inference and logic, on the one hand. On the other, inspiration by divine powers. Almost all the scientific texts of the time make references to both these methods. These texts were confined to the Brahmans and were cut off from the practical world. Thus, there was a divide between knowledge & practice. As a result of this, non-scientific matters became obstacles to science. Instead of scientific advancement, there were elaborations on the same themes. And they fell behind even in those areas of knowledge in which they had led the world. This happened not only in ayurveda and astronomy but in other spheres as well. And the consequences were to felt in the age to come. 
1178
11794. K. Narayan is the composer of the background score for BKC. 
1180----------------------------------------
1181Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 7: Mathematics & Temple Architecture (Chandita Mukherjee) – Pad. ma
1182
1183https://pad.ma/CGB/player
1184https://pad.ma/CGB/player
1185Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 7: Mathematics & Temple Architecture
1186
1187Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:50:26; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 2. 130; Saturation: 0. 055; Lightness: 0. 336; Volume: 0. 253; Cuts per Minute: 4. 976; Words per Minute: 69. 684;
1188
1189Summary: In this episode we learn that techniques and sciences were limited to caste barriers. We understand the operations of 'zero' and its Indian origins. We briefly understand alchemy or Rasvidya that developed experimental chemistry, extraction methods for Zinc and the lost wax process for Chola bronzes. We also explore temple architecture from the towering gopuram to rock-cut caves of Ellora and an emerging architecture brought by the invading Arabs, Turks and Afghans. 
1190
1191History of science and technology in India 
1192
1193https://pad.ma/CGB/96p. jpg
1194
1195https://pad.ma/CGB/96p. jpg
1196
1197Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 7: Mathematics & Temple Architecture
1198https://pad.ma/CGB
1199
1200https://pad.ma/CGB/256p. jpg
1201Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:50:26; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 2. 130; Saturation: 0. 055; Lightness: 0. 336; Volume: 0. 253; Cuts per Minute: 4. 976; Words per Minute: 69. 684;
1202
1203Summary: In this episode we learn that techniques and sciences were limited to caste barriers. We understand the operations of 'zero' and its Indian origins. We briefly understand alchemy or Rasvidya that developed experimental chemistry, extraction methods for Zinc and the lost wax process for Chola bronzes. We also explore temple architecture from the towering gopuram to rock-cut caves of Ellora and an emerging architecture brought by the invading Arabs, Turks and Afghans. 
1204
1205Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 7: Mathematics & Temple Architecture
1206
1207Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit Duration: 00:50:26; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 2. 130; Saturation: 0. 055; Lightness: 0. 336; Volume: 0. 253; Cuts per Minute: 4. 976; Words per Minute: 69. 684 
1208
1209Summary: In this episode we learn that techniques and sciences were limited to caste barriers. We understand the operations of 'zero' and its Indian origins. We briefly understand alchemy or Rasvidya that developed experimental chemistry, extraction methods for Zinc and the lost wax process for Chola bronzes. We also explore temple architecture from the towering gopuram to rock-cut caves of Ellora and an emerging architecture brought by the invading Arabs, Turks and Afghans. 
1210
1211Bharat Ki Chhap: EPISODE 7
1212
1213Mathematics and Architecture (700- 1200 A. D. )
1214
12151. Chandita: Looking at this material after a long gap in time jogs one’s memory and brings up thoughts. So I can keep spilling out and what we would like to put in the Pad. ma archive and what is useful to other researchers, scholars, teachers who may like to use this material would be a little different. 
1216
1217We made some choices about what to show in the series, anticipating a charged-up, polarized communliased situation where identity politics would come to the forefront. These choices have to be made more obvious now and I feel that is one function my annotations can fulfill. 
1218
1219How does science grow? Evolving from what things?And how do we absorb the new techniques it brings?Let's look at society in those daysLet's look at the science of that timeSee why the gains of a certain ageWere lost at a later stageAnd a civilization that once led. . . fell back, while others forged aheadWhy does this happen? Oh, why?How does science grow? Evolving from what things?This is the question that our own age brings
1220
12212. Ep7 begins with a song – how do scientific techniques evolve, how does society adopt those techniques? Why does it happen that some things come to the fore at a certain period and just a little later the entire civilization seems to forget it and throw it away and go into something else. Why does all this happen? This question can never be answered but we must underline this question and be aware of it so that science never grows still. 
1222
1223Nissim: Science never stands still. Obstacles might slow it down, it might appear to slide backwards or change direction or form but new routes emerge and science moves ahead. Maitreyi: The obstacles in the path of science are things like caste. Take the potter - he knows different soils, and how they react with various substances at different temperatures. But such knowledge was confined to one caste - as with blacksmiths, carpenters etc. The skills and principles of different fields did not come together, there was no integration. Nissim: Astronomy is an example. But if, rather than ritual and horoscopy, this science had grown through navigation? We too might have had a Galileo or a Kepler. Instead, astronomy, along with astrology, stayed with the brahmans, and navigation, with the sailors. The barrier of caste always separated the two. 
1224
1225Nissim: But now we approach 700 AD. It used to be thought that 700 to 1200 was a bleak period for science. Yet this age saw an active exchange between different lands. This laid the foundations of modern scienceMaitreyi: At that time, our lawbooks were banning sea voyages. Thus overseas trade declined, as did our interaction with other cultures. The country was divided into isolated parts. Cities were few, villages largely self-sufficient. Nissim: Even so, some ideas spread, and took root. Alchemy travelled from China to India. Our number system reached Europe - this was the basis of the modern number system - the digits 1 to 9, and the zero
1226
12273. There was a lot of prejudice about moving freely with people of other countries. As a result international overseas trade also declined, coupled with the fact that many embargos were placed on products from here. Conditions in Rome changed and they put in place a law that forbade paying for products from here with gold. Import declined because nobody paid with gold and trade came down. 
1228
1229Within the country we see great empires broken up into small principalities in different locations. The great cities and market places declined. Villages became self sufficient, and they would have weekly bazaars and haats and exchange locally. 
1230
1231In this isolation, some ideas still spread and its hard to say why these ideas and not others though these are questions worth pondering. For instance, alchemy reached India from China, probably via the Chinese trade boats that came here. In south India Siddha medicine became very important and even to this day a lot of people follow it, and Siddha medicine uses a lot of metals and alchemic processes. 
1232
1233Three little mice cried “choo choo”One ran away and then there were twoTwo little mice cried “choo choo”One ran away and then there was oneOne little mouse cried “choo choo”He ran away and then there was zero!
1234
1235A friend of mine teaches at this nursery school. I heard the children sing this song the other day. How easily, I thought we grasp the zero today! How did people manage for centuries without it? The zero was needed when numbers had to be written. Depicting numbers is not the same as doing sums. Any sign, like x, y or z, can stand for a number. Or if I say this sofa is 'one' and the table 'four',as long as we all agree, we can use these symbols. The problem arises when you want to add the two. How do you add a sofa and a table?You count on your fingers - four, plus one, makes five. That's what the merchants of Alexandria did. A Roman merchant's cargo once came from India. He wrote down in Roman numbers the price of ivory – 2,322, and of silk - 6,739. How to add these up? With an abacus! First, the ivory. Two rings in the I column, two in the X, three in the C and two in the M. Then he added the price of the silk. Nine in the I, three in the X, seven in the C and six in the M column. If a stick had ten rings, he took one to the next stick, and removed the other nine. The total was nine thousand, sixty sixty-one. Nine thousand and sixty-one. This was simple. But merchants have to do complicated sums. Writing numbers this way makes things difficult. But the Arab sea captain who'd brought the cargo had another method. His symbols were of this type. We saw this added on the abacus. For the numbers of rings on each abacus stick the Arab had specific symbols. Now is this nine hundred and sixty-one, or thousand? Or Ninety thousand and sixty-one? In the empty spot he drew a new Indian symbol. He'd have written ninety thousand, sixty-one thus. But this must be nine thousand, sixty-one because each symbol has a definite place. 1 is in the unit place, 6 in the tens, 0 in the hundreds and 9 in the thousands! So with just the digits 1 to 9 the largest of numbers can easily be depicted. 
1236
12374. Zero: The character Shahnaz takes us through an appreciation of zero and of the modern number system. Our number system went through the hands of Arab traders to Europe to the city of the Renaissance, and this became the basis for the modern number system. 1 to 9 and 0. 
1238
1239Shahnaz compares it to the old Roman system of using an abacus and counting and carrying over from 9 to 10 and moving to the next column. She shows how difficult it was and cumbersome it was to keep doing big calculations and doing fractions in such a manner. The zero made it all very easy and that is why it was eagerly adopted all over the world. In China, Central Asia, Western Asia and Europe. The idea is not to say that Indians are the greatest and cleverest, or anything crudely nationalistic. 
1240
1241Here the attempt is to say that a good idea travels and catches fire and people see the benefit and convenience of it. It’s something to feel proud about. We ought to remember that it started up here. China and Babylon had similar ideas – for instance the Babylonians used a dot as a symbol for that place value. 
1242
12435. Rules of zero:
1244
1245The invention was not of the figure of zero as depicted in different cultures, but what Brahmagupta framed as the rules
1246
1247a+0 = a. 
1248
1249a-0=a
1250
1251aX0= 0
1252
1253a÷0 =∞
1254
1255The most important is the last one. This is something that is adapted and picked up immediately all over the subcontinent because these visitors from abroad who took it away were calling upon ports in Kerala, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Orissa. They were coming to all places along the Malabar and Corommandel coastline, and they were picking it up. 
1256
1257It spread within India through the educated classes, or the Brahmins – the keepers of knowledge. In this instance India is used in a generalized sense, rather than specific place names. 
1258
1259The zero existed also in other civilizations like Babylon and China. But Indian mathematicians first used the digits 1 to 9 to depict numbers of any size. And they made the zero an independent number. Brahmagupta, in the 7th century, framed rules for the operations of zero. The zero freed maths from the limits of the abacus, and went on to cross newer boundaries. 
1260
1261Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
1262
12636. Give and take: We may have invented the zero but we also learnt and exchanged many ideas. The Chinese bring alchemy to India. 
1264
1265Alchemy at that time had a lot to do with amarta or immortality, which was an obsession of all ancient cultures. People didn’t want to grow old, they didn’t want to rot away and die. There is a legend in almost all cultures about some sort of magic potion that you drink and remain eternally youthful. All ancient texts, the Bible and others have this fantasy. 
1266
1267In China the popular notion grew out of observing how gold never rusted while other metals would decay because of exposure to the elements. Gold remained golden. The notion that grew was that if in some way we can figure out how to consume gold then our body will be rust and rot free. The twin search with this was to figure how to turn base metals and cheap metals like iron and lead into gold. These were the experiments that led to modern day chemistry in Europe and so many processes and drugs and metallurgy and chemistry comes out of that. Here that didn’t happen – our knowledge of metals and alchemy was restricted to Ayurvedic medicine and making of bhasmas, sublimation of metals and so on. 
1268
1269Definitely this lack of vigour has something to do with the fact that all experiments and knowledge of this kind was restricted to a very limited group of people. These people were not thinking of big furnaces where you can make huge amounts of steel. They were thinking of a medicine to give to the king, bring out how to turn gold into something which could be eaten without poisoning the person. And that was the limit of their quest. 
1270
1271Exchanges between the Arab world, China and India gave an impetus to science. From the 3rd to the 7th century trade with China grew. And from China came a new science – alchemy. The wish to be immortal is as old as humankind. The Rig Veda refers to soma rasa which was believed to grant eternal youth. Ayurveda, too, has recipes of this kind. Of the metals, gold most impressed the ancients, for it never lost its lustre. They felt that partaking of gold in some form would ensure an equally perfect body. And so alchemy strove to discover how base metal could be turned into gold and immortality attained. They experimented with many minerals and plants. Their finds could have led them modern chemistry, but did not go beyond the medicines of ayurveda. 
1272
1273Ranjan: Mercury and sulphur - these elements became the basis of such medicines. Take the kajjali being made here. Ayurveda still uses these old alchemy methods. Prof: The Rasaratnasamuchchaya of Vagbhatt says 'If we learn to refine mercury we can rid the world of poverty, old age, disease'. Ranjan: These impossible searches of alchemy led to experiments through which knowledge of chemical processes and of metals grew. 
1274
1275Cinnabar is a compound of sulphur and mercury. Here, mercury is being extracted from it. It is ground, lemon juice added, and pellets made. This damru yantra is made from two earthen pots. Mercury is sublimated in this instrument. Ranjan: Has the mercury formed? -Yes, we'll take it outThe alchemy texts described many other instruments. How much is there? - Let's see. 
1276
12777. Alchemy And More: Alchemy was believed to hold the secret for eternal life, and whether it did or not, it did lead to a lot of play and experiment with chemicals. Along with this quest for eternal life and so on, they were playing around with a lot of chemicals particularly mercury and sulphur which they were obsessed with. There are so many medicines that are made out of combinations of mercury and sulphur and here we show a scene of mercury being taken out of cinnabar. Cinnabar is a natural chemical compound of mercury and sulphur. 
1278
1279Here the experiment is being done and without any mask against the fumes, just like it was done for centuries. This is perhaps a curiosity piece for people who would believe that such an experiment is dangerous to do today, now that we know many of the ill effects of direct exposure to metal. 
1280
1281So I kept worrying that guy and saying what about minamata disease and stuff like that. And he said its been done for centuries like this and no one has been killed yet. And we continued to do it. I don’t know if I agree with this but I didn’t say anything in the film. Like why aren’t at least the workers in your lab wearing gloves. 
1282
1283Minamata disease first spread widely in Japan, where lot of mercury was dumped, deformed babies are born. The story of the Mad Hatter also comes from mercury poisoning. Mercury was being used for making felt hats and so the workers developed all these twitches and they were babbling and talking nonsense, because their brains were getting effected. They didn’t realize that this was because of the fumes of sulphur. 
1284
1285Maitreyi: The alchemists discovered the properties of many substances, and invented various instruments. These may look like cooking pots to us but this was their laboratory equipment. While sciences like maths are abstract, ayurveda and alchemy depend on observation and experiment. These had little status in our culture. Such work was, despite its potential, done in secret. Nissim: Thus alchemy led to modern chemistry elsewhere but remained confined to craft traditions here. Metallurgy gained from alchemy experiments. Alchemy texts reflect knowledge of metals. The 13th century Rasaratnasamuchchaya refers to a processthen unknown in the rest of the world - the extracting of pure zinc. John Marshall, after Takshashila excavations wrote this report. He says that analysis of the brass objects found reveals the use of pure zinc in their making. This implied that they had the know-how. But where was the zinc ore mined and refined?Maitreyi: The answer was found in 1984, at Zawar, where the British Museum, Hindustan Zinc Ltd. and the MS University conducted excavations. 
1286
12878. Caste plays an important role in the distribution and production of knowledge in India. The potter may know the quality of different soils. He may not have a theory about the chemistry of it. But he knows and will explain in a language that is different from modern chemistry, what he understands about soil and silica content, or what kind of earth will produce a red or white glaze. This kind of practical or experience based knowledge remains with the potter or the blacksmith or the carpenter or the textile weaver. 
1288
1289In this way the principles from practice and abstract or principle based knowledge do not come together and because of this there is no integration or cross-pollination between different streams of sciences or knowledge systems. 
1290
1291Astronomy is an example where there is all this wonderful work done by people like Aryabhatta, Varamihira and Brahmagupta and others. Even if some of them did give obeisance to sprits and ghosts, they also did some very complex math and astronomy thinking. But that knowledge of astronomy never turned into exploration and travel, and people going on sea voyages. This was largely because there were great restrictions on mingling with people of other countries and communities and eating their food and so on. And we never saw that native knowledge of astronomy being used for navigation and exploring the world. 
1292
1293To know more, Raghu went to Zawar in Rajasthan and to the University in Baroda where he met Prof KTM Hegde. Prof. Hegde: Brass was in great demand for it shone like gold. To make it, they needed zinc. But there was no actual evidence till we found ancient zinc distillation sites at Zawar. Raghu: Some 40 km from Udaipur, in the Aravali hills is Zawar, where Hindustan Zinc Ltd has its mines. This is the largest zinc producing unit in India. Today, zinc is made by an electrolytic process. 
1294
1295Dept of Archaeology and Ancient History, MS University, Baroda
1296
12979. Philosopher’s Wool:  One such thing is zinc. Indians had discovered how to make zinc. The process is rather difficult and is shown in this sequence. It is because of the complicated process and if you don’t make it in just the right way, everything evaporates into the air and turns into philosopher’s wool. 
1298
1299European alchemists discovered how to do only much later than it was done here. In India this technique was known, and we could make alloys, brasses and bronzes, but it was totally forgotten. In the Aini-Akbari there are references to zinc being made somewhere near Udaipur. 
1300
1301William Champion patented and is given credit for discovering the technique for mass production and industrialization of making brass. He was following a similar method to the one shown here. Our ancient texts refer to a baigan (brinjal) shaped crucible – something like a bulb with a narrow stem neck in which this process is done. This is then precipitated into a bowl of water so that it cools in the water and gets a solid metal shape instead of turning into a fiber cloud or philosopher’s wool that disappears into thin air. Ironically it is the technique that was lost to Indians like philosopher’s wool. 
1302
1303This is something we want the viewer to think about .  The parallel questions in our own time would be why do the most beautiful fine handicrafts die and require all kinds of aid to be kept alive and for the craftspersons themselves to not give up that profession. 
1304
1305The zinc sequence actually consists of two sub sequences –one is the scene at Baroda, at a museum in the university and experiment with Professor Hegde. And the other is at Zaver itself where these objects have been found by archaeologists and local employee of Hindustan zinc take Raghu, one of the BKC characters, into the underground chambers and deep into the ground to see what’s happening there. This was fairly difficult to shoot, without electricity and with hand held battery operated lamps. Nice work by Ranjan Palat, the cameraperson. 
1306
1307Zawar Mines, Udaipur Dist. , Rajasthan
1308
1309A geologist, Lalit Gurjar, took me around old Zawar. He had worked with the excavating team. Lalit: Evidence of mining here is more than 2,500 years old. Smelting finds take us only to the 10th century, but reveal a fairly sophisticated technology. This must have evolved over time. This furnace has two sections. The upper part, and the cooler chamber below are separated by a perforated plate. 
1310
1311Prof. Hegde: Zinc is not easy to make. To extract zinc from its oxide requires a temperature of 1,100º Celsius. But zinc vaporises at 908º and forms zinc oxide, so light that it escapes through the furnace flues. A special furnace, then, is needed. This is a scale model of the Zawar furnace. It has two sections - the furnace chamber, and condensation chamber. In the furnace chamber were placed retorts packed with zinc oxide and carbonaceous matter. The temperature inside was raised to 1200º. The carbonaceous matter formed carbon monoxide and descended with great pressure into the condensation chamber, while zinc vapour collected in the condensation vessels. Raghu: The zinc industry must have brought prosperity to Zawar? Prof: Yes. Brass made with pure zinc was much in demand. The heaps of industrial debris around Zawar indicated a long-lived, prolific industry. And the ruin of temples and houses reflect how much wealth there was. 
1312
1313Zawar Mines, Udaipur Dist. , Rajasthan
1314
1315Lalit: Here lived the people who mined and smelted zinc. Raghu: Shall we go down? Lalit: Why not?We explored ancient mines and ruins in the valley. He took me down a disused shaft -pitch dark, but for our helmet lamps. Raghu: Was this used for transporting ore?Lalit: This was a ladder, used by people to come down, or carry ore up. It's 2,000 years old. Raghu: Can wood survive so long?Lalit: In this sealed-off environment, yes - it's completely cut off from the outside worldRaghu: Was it carbon-dated? Lalit: It was. You see these galleries? They lit fires in hollows to heat the rock, then sprinkled cold water, so the rock cracked. This made it easy to chisel out the ore - that's how these galleries were createdRaghu: And the tools you found?Lalit: Yes, I'll show you and we'll visit the old township. Look – there are thousands of used retorts all over. They removed the zinc, and used them like bricks. Raghu: So they recycled used materials even then!
1316
131710. It was thought that 700 to 1200 was a bleak period for science. But here today we know enough that there was also a great exchange going on between different countries and this laid the foundations for modern science. We cannot just call it the dark ages as it is called in European history. 
1318
131911. Western V. Eastern Science: There could be some concern that in this series we are privileging the western model of science by even stating a slight regret that we didn’t exhibit a similar level of development of science or scientific principles as in the west. For instance, we say that here the knowledge of alchemy remained restricted to medicine and didn’t turn into modern chemistry. 
1320
1321Even in this highly relativistic picture, other factors are emerging. Aryabhatta would soon be able to tell the circumference of the globe and the equator, distance of sun from the earth. 
1322
1323So the question remains that how it is that in these other sciences like chemistry, where we have been dabbling for centuries with the properties of chemicals reacting on the human body – how is it that this ‘practical’ knowledge didn’t extrapolate to larger explanations of the phenomena of nature. 
1324
1325Perhaps the answer lies in that we can’t really compare two very different systems of living and governance and patronage. Like early capitalism and industrial revolution in England with life in the court of the Guptas where only certain privileged people had royal patronage and could carry own experiments. 
1326
132712. Secret Science:
1328
1329Much of what was going on as experimentation in alchemy and Ayurveda was done in secret. The knowledge in relation to the body was not well regarded by the dominant Brahmins who were involved in ritual activity and so on. This bold and fearless way of thinking and experimentation and open minded thinking, generally associated with the Tantrics was considered dangerous and subversive. 
1330
1331A lot of the experiments with the body, chemicals and metals, medicine and related knowledge streams was done in secret and was written up in a language called Sandhyabhasha which was a coded and clouded language. Sandhya also means evening. A dark language. 
1332
1333Only the initiated ones would come to know about it and the initated ones had a very bad reputation – they were Tantrics. They were doing experiments with drugs on their bodies, or experiments with sex, or with diet and exercise. Their quest was to stretch the limits of the body and its inter-relation with the material world. These were all people with a bad reputation and respectable people stayed away from them and only came to them when desperate, probably when their loved ones were dying. 
1334
133513. Tantric Knowledge: Tantrics were unruly people who were not adherents of the Manusmriti. They did not obey those laws of conduct that other Brahmins followed and they were very bold and experimental. They cut up dead bodies and were always doing all kinds of experiments with drugs and sex and so on, which were beyond prescribed limits. Even some of these cults had initiation rituals that were all about crossing the threshold of disgust. 
1336
1337The new initiates had to get over their choo-achuth repulsion that all Brahmins were trained in; it was ingrained into their awareness right from the time they were small. All these activities of theirs brought them a lot of disrepute but at the same time a lot of knowledge came from their experiments and exploring. 
1338
133914. We now go to the south and we look at the Chola bronzes. 
1340
1341Alloys were rare till the 7th century but grew more common as metallurgy developed. The most striking examples are the figurines. By the 9th century, this art was flourishing in the South, under the Chola kings. The relative proportions of the figure were based on strict rules. The face was a basic measure, known as taal. The other parts were multiples of this length. Chola bronzes are still made in South India. First, the figure is made in wax according to the medieval aesthetic rules. Then it is covered with clay and when dry, wrapped with wire. Then it is heated, so the wax flows out leaving a hollow mould. Special alloys, of five or eight metals, are usedMolten metal is poured into the mould. 
1342
1343National Museum, New Delhi
1344
1345Government College of Architecture & Sculpture, Mamballapuram
1346
134715. Lost-wax casting (cire perdue) is how a lot of statues are made in India. This is the process being shown now. Its always a moment of tension, when you don’t know the Dancing Shiva will come out with one leg or arm or something like that. It takes experience, watching colour of flames, there is no thermometer, so you have to look at the colour temperature of the fire to know what form it will take. 
1348
1349It is a tense moment for the craftsman. Has the casting been successful? Every Chola bronze is unique despite the complex method and strict rules. Figurines of the Bhakti saint-poets are also found. Their hymns, in the local tongues – not Sanskrit - helped regional language and literature to grow. 
1350
1351Government Museum, Chennai
1352
1353Madurai Meenakshi Temple, Madurai
1354
135516. Importance Of Being A Temple:
1356
1357It was the temple as an institution that was important in this age. Here patrons donated the statues and bronzes that they bought from craftsmen. These temples were huge market places with lots of business taking place, and over time became institutions in themselves that often overshadowed the present king. So kings had to declare loyalty to a temple and add further walls and gates to the gopurams of the temple. 
1358
1359These were the accumulations of wealth and influence that were created through south India, and perhaps were not quite like cities as in the rest of the world, but were similar. These temple complexes had schools, dancing girls, market places, huge number of cow sheds and production of ghee and milk taking place. 
1360
1361Temples became centres of social activity. Large halls were built for religious assemblies. Donations brought wealth. Temples performed banking functions. Thousands were employed - flower-sellers, milkmen, singers, musicians and dancing girls. The temples became small townships with markets, resthouses, treasuries, dairies, godowns etc. Education here emphasised the old texts. After universities like Nalanda declined, temple schools became the centres of learning. Thus the temple became an institution invested with power and social status. Rulers changed, but the temple remained. New kings looked to the old temples for sanction. So the temple became a symbol of political power. No wonder each had to be grand and immense. 
1362
1363Old temples could not really be made taller, nor could they be broken down and rebuilt. So began the convention of boundary walls and massive gateways, known as gopurams in the south. Each new ruler would build a taller gopuram. 
1364
136517. The Science Of Temple Architecture
1366
1367Earlier there were sacred caves when some markings may be chiseled or painted on walls , like Ajanta and Ellora, the famous cave temples of western India and the Buddhist monasteries along the Western Ghats. As time went by, instead of making the temple where the rock occurs in nature and designating that as the holy spot where people trek to, the temple was brought down to the plains, to market places where people lived and markets were, where wood, stone, textile is available. These became the centers and the temples were shifted there and those Brahmins who controlled temples and kings who patronized them derived influence from the temple and the deity who belonged to it. 
1368
1369Through this trabeated architectural forms dominated which entailed stone put upon stone, and mortar was also used sometimes. New influences then came from the west such as the arch and dome, and that would revolutionize architectural forms. 
1370
137118. Trabeated Architecture
1372
1373Trabeated architecture is often disparaged as simple but in itself it requires a lot of forethought and calculation. Especially to make a building as tall as the Brihhadeeshwarar temple. But such an architectural form has limits and the temples were made taller and bigger, but over time it was the decoration and sculpture that marked a temple’s form rather than architectural innovation. These were sculptural forms and seen more as achievements of art rather than architecture. 
1374
137519. Arch and Dome: The arch and the dome came from central Asia, not necessarily described only as Mughal as Mughal refers to a particular set of people, namely Babar and his descendants or the Tughlaqs, Ghoris and Ghaznis. Before the Mughals came to India, the architectural form of the arch and the dome could already be found in India. The dome is basically a series of arches put together in a circle. 
1376
1377The key idea of the arch is the keystone. That is what ensures that the stones on the side become a support and don’t let the structure fall down. One of the biggest domes in the world is the Golghumbas found in Gulbarga. 
1378
1379Soon the dome and arch were part of the architectural language in India. Initially when these forms were used, Indian masons still used supports and beams to support the arch that they believed would collapse in an earthquake or otherwise. For instance, in Ghiassudin’s tomb in Delhi. They also believed that if the keystone got loose then the whole building would tumble and people would die. They often added supporting beams as a decoration or emphasis. 
1380
1381The number of boundary walls and gopurams grew. Temple construction became widespread after the 7th century. Earlier, places of worship were carved from rock. Take the Lomas Rishi caves in Bihar's Barabar hills. Carved around 250 BC by the Ajivika sect,they replicate wood, mud and straw dwellings. Those houses do not survive but we can see them in sculpture, as at Sanchi. The carving of caves with chisel and hammer is more sculpture than architecture. No materials, or tests for strength, are needed. All you need is a rock face. 
1382
1383Lomasrishi Cave, Barabar Hill, Bihar
1384
1385Kailashnath Temple, Ellora, Verul
1386
1387For centuries, shrines were made in caves like those at Karla, Kanheri, Ajanta, Ellora. The Ellora caves date from the 6th to the 13th century. Like house roofs that need beams for support these caves have carved stone beams and pillars!
1388
1389This 8th century temple of Kailashnath at Ellora represents the peak of rock-cut architecture, carved so that it stands free from the mother rock. A masterly achievement, but it is basically sculpture. 
1390
1391Gradually, temples became symbols of social prestige. And idol-worship grew importance. So temples now had to be built in the cities rather than far away on a hill. 
1392
1393Sanchi Stupa, Raisen Dist. , Madhya Pradesh
1394
1395Putting stone on stone is a very old technique - an example being this Sanchi gateway of 150 BC. The weight of the stone ensures stability. Take these four pillars – if I place four beams and then a roof on top, this structure won't fall. No cement or other mortar is needed. This is known as trabeate construction. This is, vertical pillars to support horizontal beams. This Gupta period temple at Sanchi and, later, temples everywhere were built this way. One weakness of trabeate construction is obvious - this 12 ft sq roof needs four supporting pillars. Later, huge assembly halls had hundred of pillars. Yet, temples could now be built anywhere, and so played a more intimate role in people's lives. 
1396
139720. Ritual And Architecture:Architecture was closely related to ritual. The temple was based on a ritualistic graph of 64 squares as is explained in this scene. What were initially mere mostly practical injunctions about where to place the temple, how to use wood and stone, were later translated into good and bad omens. Here knowledge is once again circumscribed because of the distance between those with practical knowledge of building, such as the mason, and aesthetic rules that were included by writers of higher castes in texts about temple architecture. 
1398
139921. The quotes here are from the Vishnudharmottara Purana which is written in Gupta times when the king asks his guru and the author of this book, Markendeya to instruct him in architecture. So Markandeya says – O King, to master this art of architecture you must know painting, singing, dancing, music, lit, and all of them are bound by the same common aesthetic rules. 
1400
1401The temple was also the staging ground where all these other arts were in evidence. 
1402
1403I came upon this book recently - the Vishnudharmottara Purana, of Gupta times. It has this dialogue - King Vajra asks his guru Markandeya to instruct him in architecture. The guru says, “O king, to master this art you must know painting, dancing, music, literature” By that time, all the arts had begun to be bound by common aesthetic rules. 
1404
1405Chidambaran Temple, Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu
1406
1407The stage for all these arts was – the temple. 
1408
140922. Developing writing skills: Tikka and tippani or writing commentaries and writing criticisms and critiques was a common preoccupation at these times. The earlier sutras were being relooked at and being combined, collated, compared etc. 
1410
1411This is also the time for Bhaskaracharya’s seminal work Leelavati where he has a dialogue with his daughter leelavati who is a mathematician in her own right.  The text shows that Bhaskaracharya is assimilating what is known from other parts of the country and world and innovating on his own as well. He ventures into areas such as calculus and ideas that the Europeans would arrive at six or seven centuries later. 
1412
1413The Purana gives rules for temple-building - the type of wood and stone to be used, how to select a site, water arrangements -down to details of its day-to-day running. Many injuctions are, however, superstitions. Thus along with rules for soil analysis etc. there is much talk of good and bad omens, perhaps because the writer and mason were different. The masons' guild followed given plans and trained apprentices, while the brahmans transformed the masons' know-how into theory. Over time, this became scripture - beyond change or question. 
1414
1415Other than Bhaskaracharya’s seminal work on mathematics there is also Madhavacharya’s work in Kerala. This is not mentioned in Bharat ki Chaap as it wasn’t known at the time and has been discovered later. All this work on mathematics and other fields took place in India but did not catch on and get propogated or known in other parts of the world. The pity here is that good ideas didn’t spread and not that India could have been the epicenter of knowledge. 
1416
1417Take the basic concept of the temple. A mountain-like exterior and a small, dark sanctum. This inner shrine was always square. The square suits trabeate construction well. Ground plans reveal the square's importance. The square is a geometric shape that can be divided into equal units. They called this square a mandala. This basic square was divided into 64 squares. The four inner squares were the sanctum sanctorum. Then its walls and then the path for circumambulation. And then the outer walls. This was the basic ground plan for all temples - known as the vastupurusha mandala, for in this perfect square they saw the perfect man. These 64 squares can be divided into thousands of smaller squares. This grid was used like graph paper. By adding or subtracting squares temples of different designs could be built. Thus temples grew more and more decorative. 
1418
141923. Geometry Of Temples:
1420
1421Temples also connect us to mathematics because the circle, square and rectangle is the basis of all the temple structures
1422
1423Bhaskara in India proved Pythogaras’ theorem using a different kind of proof fro the Euclidean proof that is based on the triangle. Bhaskara’s proof uses squares and is algebraic rather than geometric and this is why it is interesting to modern mathematicians as well. 
1424
1425Trabeated architecture is often disparaged as simple but in itself it requires a lot of forethought and calculation. Especially to make a building as tall as the Brihhadeeshwarar temple. But such an architectural form has limits and the temples were made taller and bigger, but over time it was the decoration and sculpture that marked a temple’s form rather than architectural innovation. These were sculptural forms and seen more as achievements of art rather than architecture. 
1426
1427Arch and Dome: The arch and the dome came from central Asia, not necessarily described only as Mughal as Mughal refers to a particular set of people, namely Babar and his descendants or the Tughlaqs, Ghoris and Ghaznis. Before the Mughals came to India, the architectural form of the arch and the dome could already be found in India. The dome is basically a series of arches put together in a circle. 
1428
1429The key idea of the arch is the keystone. That is what ensures that the stones on the side become a support and don’t let the structure fall down. One of the biggest domes in the world is the Golghumbas found in Gulbarga. 
1430
1431Soon the dome and arch were part of the architectural language in India. Initially when these forms were used, Indian masons still used supports and beams to support the arch that they believed would collapse in an earthquake or otherwise. For instance, in Ghiassudin’s tomb in Delhi. They also believed that if the keystone got loose then the whole building would tumble and people would die. They often added supporting beams as a decoration or emphasis. 
1432
1433The texts describe several temple styles. By 1,000 AD, two styles had become common. One was the vimana style as in the Brihadeshwara temple at Thanjavur. In the north, the shikhara style dominated. The Lingaraja temple in Orissa is a famed example. On the surface, these styles look different but both as based on the vastupurusha mandala and on the putting of one stone on another. Bound as they were by the scriptural limits the temples could only be built taller or be sculpted more richly. 
1434
1435Brihadeshwara Temple, Thanjavur
1436
1437Linagaraja Temple, Bhubaneswar, Orissa
1438
1439Prasannakesava Temple, Somnathapura, Karnataka
1440
1441Built in 1270 in the Hoysala tradition this is the Somnathpur's Prasannakeshava temple - more sculpture, really, than architecture. True, there were some innovations - the top here is a blend of vimana and shikhara. But such constructions were usually weak. This temple is unique in having three sanctums on a single, star-shaped platform. But this is no advance in architecture -the stars are achieved by rotating the familiar square on itself. 
1442
1443Maitreyi: The plans of all these temples were based on the circle, square, rectangle. The Shulbhasutra proved Pythagoras' theorem using the rectangle, instead of the triangle as in Euclid's proof, which we learned in school. The mathematician Bhaskara proved it with squares quite differently. Amrita: And more simply. This right-angled triangle has sides a and b and the hypotenuse c. We must prove that a² + b² = c² If we make squares on each side, their areas will be a², b² and c². We've to prove that a² + b² = c². Let's add four ab triangles on both sides to make two sqaures. The square on the left has side (a + b) so its area is (a + b)². The area of the other square is also (a + b)². Remove the triangles of identical area and we have a² + b² = c². 
1444
1445In his Lilavati, Bhaskara gives this diagram and calls it the proof. How does it work? The area of the outer square with the side (a +b) can either be seen as (a + b)² or the inner square with c sides i. e. c² plus the four triangles i. e. 4(½ab). We can expand this to a² + 2ab + b² = c² + 2ab. Cancel 2ab on both sides, and there we are! a² + b² = c². 
1446
1447Matrieyi: This proof interests us because it is an algebraic, not a geometric, proof. The algebra makes it simpler than Euclid's. Nissim: In Indian mathematics the algebra tradition was strongest. It emerged with Aryabhata in the 7th century and by the 15th was the most advanced in the world. The use of symbols, indeterminate equations of the first and second order, equations with more than one unknown, higher order equations - attempts to solve these were special to this time. We were behind in geometry but trigonometry reached a peak by the 10th century or so, then stood still. 
1448
144924. Not An Age For Science: This is seen as a period where not much development happened in the sciences, but there were many exchanges that took place during this period, including in alchemy and in maths. 
1450
1451This period which is the 8th to 12th century – the Arabs came, Al Beruni and Ibn-Battuta came from Magrid. They absorbed Indian numbers, algebra, astronomy and carried it to other parts of the world. The static, stagnant intellectual currents that start moving onwards from 11th century. 
1452
1453Amrita: Bhaskara, of this period, is an exception who may be compared to Aryabhata. Bhaskara assimilated the known mathematics and made his own contributions. Maitreyi: His work contained new ideas - he even had glimmerings of differential calculus. A pity that later, only his early work was pursued, not the new aspects. Europe independently arrived at these ideas, six or sever centuries later. Yes, work in series was done here. Nissim: From the 8th to the 12th century, the Arabs absorbed Indian numbers, algebra and astronomy. Later, people came from the Gulf and Central Asia, bringing new technologies, religion, languages, ideas. These played a major role in ending the stagnationthat had set in here by the 11th century. 
1454
1455Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq's Tomb, Tughlaqabad, Delhi
1456
145725. New Architectural Forms: Ghiaassudin’s tomb is a fine example of the new architecture. It is built in 1325 and we see the arch and the dome. Early visitors from central Asia came to raid and pick up stuff and loot and carry back home, and later migrants came and assimilated into the life here because they came from small places. 
1458
1459Babar for instance comes from Fergana and is just overwhelmed by horticulture and agriculture. He gets rapidly into doing experiments himself with mangoes and flowers and so on. 
1460
1461There is, it’s a place that had become stagnant, but has a lot of knowledge and natural physical circumstances that excited the new seekers from the west. And they decided they stayed on. And because of their patronage crafts and architecture goes zooming up. New things and cities come up, around the new courts. And we see a period of great turbulence. 
1462
146326. The Mixed Age: It took a long time to make a synthesis of the old ideas and new influences, especially as the learned intellectuals in Indian society thought their achievements were supreme and everyone else was ignorant. When people come from the west – the first people to respond to the impetus are the artisans, the masons and construction people, the boat builders, the bridge makers. In this period there are lot of decorative and luxuorious innovations, because of the wealth of the new patrons – like cloth with gold, silver and copper woven into, glass and gold fused together to make containers of various sorts. 
1464
1465Shehnaaz: Mahmud of Ghazni made many raids on India in the 11th century. This was a time of change. Many foreigners – Arabs, Turks, Afghans were to come here. Their influence was felt in many spheres, including architecture. Raghu: Loot may have motivated some people at first,	but later, many strayed to make India their home. And they tried to recreate their old environments through mosques, mausoleums, palaces. Shehnaaz: And thus the arch and the dome came to India. These techniques were ancient, and by then were common in many places. But they came to India only with the new culture. These new forms blended with our old stone carving traditions. 
1466
1467Shehnaaz: A new style of Indian architecture was born. Raghu: Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq's tomb, built in 1325, has one of our first true arches. The keystone is at the centre of a circular arrangement. In the trabeate style, a beam can crack under pressure, which is evenly distributed here. So the structure won't easily collapse. As the beam's length no longer matters, the arch may span any length. Shehnaaz: It took time to adopt these innovations. For example, this beam below the arch is superfluous! Yet the masons put it there. Raghu: But once the arch is understood, the dome may be seen as an arch rotated through space. Shehnaaz: Arches and domes transformed our architecture making possible the most exquisite monuments in the period to come. 
1468
1469Arab ki Sarai, Nizamuddin, New Delhi
1470
1471Itmad ud dualah's Tomb, Agra
1472
1473Humayun's timb, Nizamuddin, New Delhi
1474
1475Ibrahim Rauza, Bijapur, Karnataka
1476
1477Taj Mahal, Agra
1478
147926. The Mixed Age: It took a long time to make a synthesis of the old ideas and new influences, especially as the learned intellectuals in Indian society thought their achievements were supreme and everyone else was ignorant. When people come from the west – the first people to respond to the impetus are the artisans, the masons and construction people, the boat builders, the bridge makers. In this period there are lot of decorative and luxuorious innovations, because of the wealth of the new patrons – like cloth with gold, silver and copper woven into, glass and gold fused together to make containers of various sorts. 
1480
1481Nissim: Craftsmanship was to scale new heights. Arches and domes helped transcend the limits of trabeate construction. Incomparably lovely buildings followed. Of course, it took time to make a synthesis of old and new. Maitreyi: For this, people had to be open to new ideas. But the learned ones who thought they were supreme - could they adopt anything new? No wonder our artisans were the first to absorb the new influences. The coming period tells the story of these changes. 
1482----------------------------------------
1483Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 8: Synthesis and Growth (Chandita Mukherjee) – Pad. ma
1484
1485https://pad.ma/CGC/player
1486https://pad.ma/CGC/player
1487Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 8: Synthesis and Growth
1488
1489Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:50:23; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 1. 819; Saturation: 0. 062; Lightness: 0. 368; Volume: 0. 256; Cuts per Minute: 6. 012; Words per Minute: 57. 402;
1490
1491Summary: Starting with Qutbuddin Aibak's reign in the north of India where science and technology were stagnant, this episode investigates the introduction of the printing press and new weapons through Portuguese rule in Goa. Science and technology flourished only for the needs of royalty such as armaments, developed water-supply systems and unmatched dyeing techniques for cloth. 
1492
1493History of science and technology in India 
1494
1495https://pad.ma/CGC/96p. jpg
1496
1497https://pad.ma/CGC/96p. jpg
1498
1499Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 8: Synthesis and Growth
1500https://pad.ma/CGC
1501
1502https://pad.ma/CGC/256p. jpg
1503Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:50:23; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 1. 819; Saturation: 0. 062; Lightness: 0. 368; Volume: 0. 256; Cuts per Minute: 6. 012; Words per Minute: 57. 402;
1504
1505Summary: Starting with Qutbuddin Aibak's reign in the north of India where science and technology were stagnant, this episode investigates the introduction of the printing press and new weapons through Portuguese rule in Goa. Science and technology flourished only for the needs of royalty such as armaments, developed water-supply systems and unmatched dyeing techniques for cloth. 
1506
1507Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 8: Synthesis and Growth
1508
1509Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit Duration: 00:50:23; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 1. 819; Saturation: 0. 062; Lightness: 0. 368; Volume: 0. 256; Cuts per Minute: 6. 012; Words per Minute: 57. 402 
1510
1511Summary: Starting with Qutbuddin Aibak's reign in the north of India where science and technology were stagnant, this episode investigates the introduction of the printing press and new weapons through Portuguese rule in Goa. Science and technology flourished only for the needs of royalty such as armaments, developed water-supply systems and unmatched dyeing techniques for cloth. 
1512
1513Bharat ki Chhap: EPISODE 8
1514
1515Synthesis and Growth
1516
1517For the first time in the history we've known. . . comes the age of paper now – of words and recordsOf paintings and crafts and travellers' accountsThat reveal to us customs and lifestyles then
1518
15191. People were coming from West Asia and Central Asia and this had an influence on trade, agriculture, architecture and innovation. The existing political scenario was one in which the big empires had declined and little kingdoms existed, where local rulers were bullying the people. Under this regime of over taxation there were many including farmers who had begun to produce less – generally this period is one of decline in agriculture and trade. 
1520
1521At this point came Qutub-idin-Aibak, a general of Ghori, and he began with appointing beureacrats who got paid a salary and not a lagaan of the poor villagers. They had to leave the villagers alone and collect a salary and live within that. This led to the whole system beginning to change and the power shifted from officials to the king once again. 
1522
1523'Lifestyle' connotes almost everything - social structure, arts and ideas, techniques and science. We are speaking of the medieval period
1524
1525when many migrants came and established their dynasties in North India. This process begins in the 13th century with Mohammed Ghori's general, Qutbuddin Aibak. And the Qutb Minar is a symbol of his reign. The decline of trade in the previous centuries has caused the decay of city culture. Agriculture was the main occupation, agricultural taxes, the income of the ruling class. Officials got land revenue rights instead of salaries. Gradually, they began to usurp this land. They had to pay the king his share maintain troops for him. So power shifted form the king to the officials. Friction among the nobles led to petty quarrels, resulting in the loss of resources and lives. No wonder the Turks, Afghans and Mongols triumphed. 
1526
15272. Different Fighting Styles: In episode 8’s preamble, it is described how the various smaller kingdoms and states were weakened and fighting amongst themselves. They did ritualistic dueling in a flat field with hunkering elephants. Ghazni and Ghori brought with them a new world of flash and fury – they had fast horses, skillful riders who fought while in the saddle. No wonder that those living here could not cope militarily with this blitz. 
1528
1529However this was hardly a period when the horrid brutal Huns came here to loot, murder and rape innocent and hapless Indians. Infact there were only several small kingdoms and principalities ruled by chieftains, there was no governance or principles of state, no unification amongst these rulers. They were thus easily overrun and those who came from Central Asia to loot, eventually decided to stay in India. 
1530
15313. How did we choose the topics or themes for BKC episodes? The choices were often based on available research on a subject. Why is it not yoga or Ayurveda that is examined as a science here is because we don’t have proper historical evidence of its antecedents and texts. A yoga practitioner today may or may not be practicing the way it was done a 1000 years ago. Most of them will not have a theoretical basis or will not talk about Pathanjali’s Yogasutra and how they are carrying out the instructions there. These are instances when the intellectual tradition is broken, also because of selling out to commercial interests. For instance, Bharatnatyam today is taught as a series of items or performances that the child will be taught, rather than an art or performance form. This kind of teacher will not tell you what was written in the Natyashastram. Thus what is focused on in the series is because of what research has taken place. 
1532
1533Qutub Complex, Mehrauli, New Delhi
1534
1535Purana Qila, New Delhi
1536
1537Everywhere, in times of unrest and trouble, people have invaded, or migrated to, new places. Such changes affected science and technology too. Central Asia was no different. Over centuries, people came from there to India - Indo-Aryan speaker, Kushanas, Shakas, Hunas - often seeking fertile land or wealth. Mehmood Ghaznavi, too, in the 10th century, came only to plunder. But in the 13th century, Ghori came and settled here. 
1538
1539Indian states were weak because of infighting. Ghaznavi and Ghori had superior armies and better breeds of horses. They used the horse-shoe, new to India. This made hilly terrain easier to negotiate. And there was the iron stirrup to secure rider's feet, even enabling him to stand and fight. His swords-thrusts had a greater reach. 
1540
1541Polo Grounds, Leh, Ladakh
1542
1543Polo-playing requires a similar skill. This game is being played in Ladakh. 
1544
1545Maitreyi: Arabs, Iranians and Central Asians settled here, bringing their languages, lifestyles and sciences, which blended with local traditions. Scientific records, too, reflect this synthesis. Many biographies and diaries also exist - Ferozshah Tughlaq's Seerat-e-Ferozshahi, Babarnama - Babar's autobiography, Ain-e-Akbari and Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri - chronicles of Akbar's and Jahangir's times. Then there are many travellers' accounts that serve as historical records. Nissim: A learned traveller came here in the 11th century. He observed Indian life closely. He said the science here was like pearls mixed with cowdung, hard to separate. He found the people superstitious. Knowledge was controlled by the upper castes. Such people were indifferent to advances in other lands. 
1546
1547Adalaj Stepwell, Ahmedabad
1548
15494. Written texts, Stories, Diaries, Chronicles . . 
1550
1551In this period after 1100 and 1200, we start seeing real written records on paper, not inscriptions and cryptic things carved on stone which were largely panegyric. Longer texts were written like the Sirat-a-Firoz-Shahi of Firoz Shah Tughlaq, the Babar Nama by Babar, Aini-Akbari, Tuzk-e-Jahangiri and so on. Also Ibn Battuta and Al Beruni wrote about their travels in chronicles and these were valuable descriptions of day to day life that were not available earlier. In the previous period the only record was that of Xuanzang’s travel writings. 
1552
1553Xuanzang writes about how he went to Nalanda and found that there were dark skinned ‘creatures’ who were not allowed to cover the upper part of their body, and who were creeping along the walls trying very hard to make sure that their shadow should not fall on others. If that happened then they were beaten up and punished severely. Xuanzang was also a Buddhist and this perhaps troubled his notions of equality of all people. However such descriptions of daily life in India are not found easily from these periods and even this is available to us now because the manuscripts were preserved by the Chinese by copying and keeping a record. The manuscript itself would have fallen apart but every 200 years or so somebody copies it by hand, word for word, and possibly edited it and left out some pages. After 1000 A. D. we start seeing some forms of writing. 
1554
1555The writing was however predominantly male and seeking for posterity for the writer. But there are more insights into daily life than from other sources especially from this period. 
1556
1557Say, who could he be?A prisoner, brought by GhaznaviHe wrote Tarikh-ul-Hind -a diary of all he sawCan't you guess his name?Al Beruni!Untouchable in their eyesAre travellers from foreign landsStrange are the ways of these peopleWho consider their religion, knowledge, nation superiorPerhaps they should travel abroadto broaden their horizonsTheir ancestors were not so narrow-minded
1558
1559Maitreyi: Science and technology had become stagnant but the synthesis of cultures brought change. Though society felt the impact gradually, it was far-reaching. It formed the basis of present-day Indian culture. Nissim: While the rulers patronised artists and scholars, medicine and astronomy were the only sciences promoted. The Unani or Greek system of medicine was adopted by the Arabs, who later popularised it in India. The basic principles of Unani and Ayurveda differ, yet exchanges between the two led to an indigenous Unani Tibb. Maitreyi: But no such exchange marked other sciences. Scholars were unwilling to share knowledge, while the artisans readily shared their skills. Many crafts flourished, and spread rapidly. With tin-plating, copper vessels grew common. Paper became so common that even sweets were wrapped in it. The spinning wheel replaced the spindle. Stitched garments instead of draped ones. And new things to eat! Pickles, jams, sherbets, carpets, perfumes. 
1560
15615. Hindu Right And Science: If we were to do this series again we would be more aware about how the Hindutva right would usurp the field of sciences in India. And this would influence how this series would be used to address the general public on the issue. 
1562
1563Mostly some things would remain the same and some would be tackled with more aggression. For instance using verses from the Rig Veda that reveal that people who wrote the text at the time ate beef and served it to their guests. They even wrote that a good host would serve his guests a milk-fed calf, one that has not been fed any grass yet, so that its flesh is tender. They will sacrifice that calf to show respect to their visitors and honour. These snippets and verses from the Rig Veda break contemporary taboos and would be shocking in the present. Today unfortunately the requirement is to be more obvious rather than subtle as BKC was when it was being made and aired. It is important to clearly say that your ancestors ate beef etc. 
1564
1565Other examples of what we would highlight include syncretic culture and how Indian culture was made by imbibing of influences from all sides. How infact those people that the pundits in Rig Veda derogatorily refers to as milchers are from Central Asia, same as the pundits themselves. Many people at different stages of history came from Central Asia – Kanishka, Vishkas, Kushans, Shungas and others. 
1566
1567After several generations the Mughals too came from Central Asia and others from the Arab countries. It was a constantly syncretic and evolving culture. 
1568
1569Another aspect that would be highlighted if the series were made now rather than in the 1980s would be language. Language is a living record of the consciousness of people and our languages have continuously evolved just like science has, and the meaning contained in language has evolved. The world view that is reflected in those languages has also changed. Popular knowledge or what is heritage now is from the Vedas and Puranas and the keepers of culture and continuity. The rest who are secular people doing research on the Rig Veda are not regarded very highly. If the series were made again, then one objective would be to show that this knowledge is a common public domain and that we all have a right to dip into it, interpret it, take a bath in it, re-present it and draw insights from it. This is not the domain anymore of special pundits and scholars alone. The scholars who assisted in the making of this series are only a key for the knowledge that we can access. 
1570
1571Another critique that is essential is that of the educational system itself, which is based on memorization and passive repetition of given texts and accepted formulations by the writers of the textbooks. Since the National Curricula framework in 2005 and right to education in 2010, there have been some changes which might disappear with the 2014 election results. We may return to a system where the dispute might be whether a masters in astrology is an M. A. or M. Sc. like in the days when Murli Manohar Joshi was the education minister. In order to equip people to be critical of policy change what we need is for a more effective education system. 
1572
1573These technological changes took place in a time of socio-political transition. By now, feudalism was deeply rooted, directly affecting the peasantry. Farmers worked on land now held by fewer people. The landlords extracted very high taxes to pay the king his dues and have enough left over. So farmers had to increase crop yields through new techniques. The effect was two-fold - their exploitation increased but techniques improved. 
1574
15756. Ghanis And Other Ancient Technological Innovations
1576
1577Ghanis were invented in an ancient time and are somewhat in use even now. In 1987, we already had a hard time finding a ghani. It wasn’t a question of making an appointment or speaking to an expert. While we travelled we used to ask people in villages and in the countryside whether they had seen one, and continuously looked for rahaks and ghanis.  And that is how we found this one. 
1578
1579Usually ghanis now are replaced by powered systems that use electricity or a diesel pumpset. Even in this ghani it is a plastic PVC oil can that is used to bring the water up. 
1580
1581Animals were used for agricultural operations. Energy alternatives like windmills did not exist. The medieval peasant had mainly wooden implements, based on mechanical principles like parallel worm gearing, used here for centuries - as in the cotton gin and sugarcane press. Right-angled gearing has a different principle. We think it came from Iran around the 13th -15th centuries, as part of the Persian wheel or rahat. We located a rahat in Nathavala village, Rajasthan, drought-ridden for the last five years. The rahat is not in use. Otherwise, a camel would be in harness. 
1582
1583Nathawala. Jaipur, Rajasthan
1584
1585When Babar came in 1530, it was a novelty for him. He wrote: “Indians use the water-wheel for irrigation. On two long ropes equal to the well's depth, pitchers are tied. These ropes are mounted on a wheel, which has an axle joined to a geared wheel, linked to a third wheel with an upright axle. The ox rotates this wheel which turns the other one, and so, the well-wheel also turns, filling the pitchers with water which through a channel can be taken anywhere”
1586
1587Persian wheels were used to irrigate orchards and fields, and supply water to the houses of nobles. They helped increase crop yieldsNow cash crops took over – cotton, indigo, tobacco, that came from Portugal, spices, that attracted European traders. 
1588
15897. First Colonizers- Portugese: The late 1400s and early 1500s is also the period when the first colonizers, the Portugese, arrived in India. There was new equipment, armament’s that the Indian nobility picked up from them. Also the printing press arrived with the Portugese and fonts were made in Indian languages of Marathi, Konkani, Tamil, Bengali etc. New foods come from countries and caught on in India especially those from similar climates that had also been colonized by the POrtugese. Like the mirchi (chilli), aloo (potato). New species of these developed in India. Also we got chikoo (sapodilla), pineapple and of course tomatoes. 
1590
1591Portugal controlled many Indian ports well before Babar came. Vasai was the main Portuguese colony in the north. 
1592
1593At first, they seemed only trade rivals of the Arabs, but they soon controlled the entire spice trade and the western sea routes. Ships on these routes paid tax to the Portuguese. A naval academy had been set up in Portugal. Their navigators had instruments and maps. Guns and cannon too, not yet common in India. Naval and military strength meant high profits. So high was the income from spices and taxes that Goa earned the name Goa Dorada - Golden Goa. 
1594
1595Vasai Fort, Thane Dist. ,Maharashtra
1596
1597The growth of new ideas in Europe was aided by the printing press. This came to Goa in 1557, but it was used only to print missionary books. Though few Indians could read, the padres began printing in the Indian languages, but in the Roman script. Later, printing in the Tamil script was attempted. Books in Marathi, Konkani, Malayalam followed. Many scholars studied our natural resources. Garcia D'Orta, a medical doctor, surveyed Vasai. He wrote of many plants and medicinal herbs. 
1598
1599If the Portuguese discovered coconut and banana here, they also gave us many new fruits and vegetables so common today. Green chillies too, a must for all Indian meals!
1600
1601Nissim: By the 15th century, many Europeans began arriving. Many travellers have left their accounts. The nobility often employed European doctors. Surprisingly, scientific advances in Europe made little impact here. New ideas spread faster in Europe because of the printing press, which Indians, never exploitated. Maitreyi: Science developed slowly. Perhaps the social environment was such - poetry, art, painting were patronised and a new cultural awareness emerged. Some individuals played a key role in this - like a 13th century poet of the Delhi Sultanate. 
1602
1603Qutub Complex, Mehrauli, New Delhi
1604
1605Say, who could he be -this musician-poet of Delhi?Passionate about India, this colourful manComposed new ragas and coined new wordsCan't you guess his name? Amir Khusro!Spring is in the air, everywhereHarbinger of joy, spring is hereWine is plentiful, as much as one desiresOfferings of fresh fruitcome with this seasonFruit-laden branches sway proudlyThe koel sings melodiously,then grows silent againSpring is in the air
1606
1607Tughlaqabad Fort, New Delhi
1608
1609Nissim: The Delhi Sultanate was declining in Khusro's time. New principalities emerged: Kashmir, Jaunpur, Gujarat, Malwa and many others. The Deccan had Vijayanagar, and the Bahmani empire that later split into many states. Maitreyi: The control of the fertile Raichur plain let to infighting and was with Vijayanagar. Yet the cultural synthesis continued. Islamic customs influence urban life. These buildings at Hampi are a case in point. The Lotus Palace has both arches and temple vimanas. Forts, especially, reflect this synthesis of styles. 
1610
1611Hampi, Karnataka
1612
1613Records show that 14th to 16th century South India saw the rise of many cities. Vijayanagar had more than eighty towns, centres of trade and administration, or temple towns. Excavations at Hampi reveal the extent of urban planning. Remains of temples, markets, buildings and a drainage system have been unearthed. The tanks and wells that supplied water to palaces had a storage capacity of over half a million litres. 
1614
1615For commoners too, there were wells, tanks and aqueducts, an important part of the water system. The Kalyani tank has black granite steps going deep down. Transportation of water without pumps depended on gravity. So they had sloping channels and the tanks were at different heights. Under Krishnadevaraya, Vijayanagar was a major centre for international trade. Spices from the south and south-eastern cottons brought wealth to the treasury. Guns and cannon were brought by foreign traders. Horses and guns were imported to make the Vijayanagar army superior, but this attempt failed. 30 years after the death of Krishnadevaraya, Ahmednagar, Bijapur and Golconda joined forces to defeat the Vijayanagar army. 
1616
1617Had the Deccan states not clashed constantly, the waste of resources could have been avoided. And the outcome may have been different. 
1618
1619The cultural richness of the Deccan states tends to be eclipsed by the Mughal splendour. Founded in 1569, Fatehpur Sikri was Akbar's capital for some fifteen years. Akbar may have left Agra to be with Salim Chishti in whose honour is held this annual urs festival. Akbar prayed for a son at his dargah. 
1620
1621Fatehpur Sikri, Agra Dist. , Uttar Pradesh
1622
16238. Ain-A-Akbari And Other Texts: Ain-A-Akbari was written by Abul Fazl about the rule of Akbar, here ain refers to law. He talks about the thinking that went into many of the policies of the emperor, the philosophical preoccupation, the dialogues he had with various people. Another account of life at the court of Akbar by somebody who was his great critic and denigrator was not printed or published. 
1624
1625it was a manuscript but his descendants felt bold enough to take it out even though by then the prejudices and the lack of openness to other ways of thinking and living had hardened. The rule of Aurangzeb did not help when taxes were imposed on people who were not circumcised. But the critical text produced in Akbar’s time was unique. 
1626
1627O Salim Chishti, be my saviourAt your doorstep, many fortunes change
1628
1629I want to serve you even after I dieFor you help the wretched and the poor
1630
1631The white marble is from Jahangir's time. 
1632
1633The ongoing cultural synthesis is well exemplified by Akbar's reign. This red sandstone city is a beautiful blend Iranian, Central Asian and many Indian styles. Wrote Abul Fazl: Fatehpur was a village 12 kos from Agra. It became a big city after Akbar came here. Many exquisite buildings have been erected. Most of the palaces are on the hilltop and in the valley are many mansions and gardens. By the emperor's decree, a mosque, a school and a house of worship have been built, the like of which few can name. 
1634
1635Apart from men of religion, many scholars graced Akbar's court. Among these was Abul Fazl, author of the Akbarnama, a part of which was the Ain-e-Akbari, a chronicle of everyday life and the affairs of state. This was Abul Fazl's house Ain-e-Akbari discusses many topics - alchemy, physics, military technology, medicine, flora and fauna, geography, philosophy, calendar-computation, minting techniques etc. Fazl was no ordinary observer. He emphasised aspects that others might have ignored. He was truly a historian. But for him, we would not have known many things. Like Al Beruni in Ghazni's time or Barni in Tughlaq's, Fazl is our main source for the Mughal period. 
1636
1637Raghu: The royal workshops were probably here. Artisans from all over supplied the nobility with objects of necessity and luxury. Ranjan: These workshops were well organised and equipped. But the craftsmen had to bring their own tools. Ain-e-Akbari gives details of quality and price, but hardly mentions tools or techniques. Raghu: Innovations seem limited to areas like armaments and to water-supply systems. 
1638
16399. Industrial Revolution was happening elsewhere in the world. The industrial revolution could only happened in a certain context, at a certain point in time, and it could only have happened in England, and not in Russia or even America. Bible reading groups in churches across England had made sure that even the poor farmers and carpenters were literate. 
1640
1641In earlier years, the discourse of the gentry, those in Oxford and Cambridge, wrote their scientific papers in Latin. But now English was the language in which even scientific documents were written and presented most people being literate that they could understand what was being talked about. At the same time there were also societies who were doing quite a bit of science popularization in Britain. Ordinary people could attend public lectures on geology, astronomy, chemistry and these were open lectures, rather than closed door discourses in Latin. All of these discourses made it possible for an inventor to discuss what he is doing with a great scientist and back and forth, and the scientist who gets an idea coming to meet an umbrella maker or person making a musical instrument and asking them whether they could make an instrument. 
1642
1643Water was usually drawn from wells by hand. Here, the Persian wheel was used to draw water. 
1644
1645Those were the two beams connected by a shaft to gears. The buffaloes went around this chamber. Thus the water was lifted further up. 
1646
1647That's where we were. Water from that well came up into those channels. Another Persian wheel brought it here. Yet another took it up to the fort. The water wheel had gears. The horizontal motion of animals or men was converted into the wheel's vertical motion. Shirazi, the inventor, also used gears and mechanical principles to design many new devices. 
1648
1649The yarghu had 16 brushes on handles that cleaned the barrels of 16 guns at a time. He designed a cannon that could be dismantled and transported easily. A grindstone attached to a military cart ground the flour as the cart moved. 
1650
1651Ranjan: Whether these were widely used is hard to tell. His experiments, though significant, do not seem related to social needs then. Raghu: Science develops in an environment conducive to the spread of new ideas. Yet Akbar's reign saw little progress in science,though much happened culturally. There were translations of texts across languages. Perhaps an open atmosphere is not enough. Amrita: Well, exchanges via translations were common even earlier. Perhaps Abul Fazl and Shirazi were exceptions. More typically, the court patronised the arts. It was an age of music, poetry, painting and crafts. Raghu: The historian Irfan Habib says here that the annual expenditure on building Fatehpur Sikri was 250,000 rupees, seemingly a huge amount. But Akbar's personal income was 15 million rupees! This money came from agricultural revenues, the source of income for the mansabdars or officials too. About 82% of the revenue went to them. Ranjan: What did they spend on? Servants, clothes, jewellery. No demands were made on science. Amrita: Exquisite handicrafts were in demand instead. 
1652
165310. Industry In Europe: Industry was also expanding in Europe at this time and their industries were based on machine and technology and industries in India were based on skill and fine craftsmanship. These skills and crafts were picked up after a long period of being trained by gurus, but it is because of this that the product from India was of superior quality and attracted people from all over the world. This high quality product would spell doom later, when many from Portugal, England would arrive in India to exploit the skills and resources of India. 
1654
1655Initially though when Europeans realized that Indian products were far more popular then the passed legislative measures that banned printed garments from India. This was a throwback to the time when Romans passed laws against the payment of gold for Indian crafts to cut down on the influx of Indian goods. Indian chintz was banned, only chintz which was manufactured in Europe and was a product of machine printing was allowed, and thus became more common. With the industrial revolution, the advantage was in any case with the Western world, as large amounts of cheap cloth could be produced. This cloth was then sold back in India, making India the market rather than the producer, and this would lead to the Indian  handloom industry’s collapse. 
1656
1657Evenutally it was ‘swaraj’ in cloth that became the basis for the nationalist struggle led by Gandhi, when he made khadi a symbol of Indian nationalism and about recovering the place of Indian weavers. The struggle involved making bonfires of mill made cloth and about demanding deindustrialization. This episodes ends by showing how the coming of the Europeans was the beginning of the end of the Mughal empire. 
1658
165911. If we made BKC series now, what would we do differently is a question. I’ve already said that I would make more obvious the agenda of the Hindu right in relation to history of science, would emphasize on the poor methods of education in the country that emphasize rote learning and look at alternative modes. 
1660
1661Another aspect of the series that we would focus on if we did the series in the contemporary, would be more coverage of Indian crafts. The threat of extinction of these crafts and skills is actually more dire today. Less people in India know or care about it, people wear junky and ugly stuff from Thailand and Singapore, the colours don’t go with their skin tone. They are not even aware that their actions are causing crafts families to commit suicide in Andhra Pradesh and other places. 
1662
1663Itmaduddaulah's Tomb, Agra
1664
1665The nobility sent for seeds and horticulturists from abroad, introduced grafting and gave us fruits like mango, melons, cherries and apricots. Itmad-ud-Daulah's tomb - built by Empress Noorjahan in her father's memory. Jahangir was interested in trees, plants, birds, animals. He studied them and had them painted. 
1666
1667His Tuzk-e-Jahangiri is rich with observations on nature. Unrivalled in colour, smell and taste. Rated above grape or melon by gourmets of Iran, Turan. Leaves like those of the willow, but larger. Its flowers bloom in spring and resemble the grape's. And it has an exquisite fragrance. Thus Fazl describes mango in Ain-e-Akbari
1668
1669Mango orchard, Aligarh
1670
1671Nissim: The nobility's desire for exotic fruits was matched by their demand for beautiful objects. Crafts flourished - fine china, carpet, bidri, brocades, textile printing etc. Centres of such crafts grew into townships. Maitreyi: India had fine craftsmen Said Babar in 1530: “Hindustan has craftsmen of every kind of every skill”. Their wages, however, were too low for them to buy expensive tools or raw materials. Despite the lack of facilities, and crude tools, their work was exquisite. A French traveller, who came during the reign of Shahjahan and Aurangzeb, also remarked on this. 
1672
1673Red Fort, Delhi
1674
1675Say, who could he be?A doctor he was, he came from FranceHe travelled far and wideYou haven't a clue? I'll tell you who!His name is Bernier!Craftsmen beyond number, able and skilledThey get by on the little they earnHow can they be expected to progressWhen they are encouraged by none?Given a chance, they will showStunning artistry, beyond compare
1676
1677National Museum, New Delhi
1678
1679Machilipatanam, Andhra Pradesh
1680
168112. Textiles: A whole explosion of crafts related to textiles as a luxury commodity took place in this period. These textiles would finally go around the world and attract a whole lot of traders to India and they would eventually lead ot the colonization of india but in the 16th to 18th century. Indian cloth was very popular because they had colours, textures, weights, decorative embellishments whether embroidery or block printing or dyeing which made them unique in the world. Many of the English words for textiles chintz is cheet, shawl is shaal, pyjama which means garment of the legs pajama, dungaree, khakhi etc come from indian words. 
1682
1683Cloth-dyeing is an ancient Indian practice. A piece of Harappan cloth found in a silver jar was dyed with a fast colour. Other samples date back to the 8th century. 
1684
1685Mordants and resists are an Indian speciality. Mordants fix colour on the cloth, resists 'resist' colour where not wanted. These colours are fast and brilliant. The European method was different - colour was applied directly, without mordants or resists. 
1686
1687I am at Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh. During the Qutbshahi regime in Golconda there was much exchange with Persia. 
1688
1689In Persian, block-printers were called chheentsaaz, while painting with brushed was called kalamkari. These words came here from Persia. 
1690
1691Mother says we have done kalamkari for 25 years. Nowadays the brush is used only to paint yellow, the rest is done with hand blocks. The technique has changed, but not the patterns. This craft flourished in the Mughal period. Kalamkari reminds us of the inlay tradition, seen mainly in the period's architecture. 
1692
1693Amrita: You don't use synthetic colours?Craftsperson: No, only vegetable dyes. Amrita: How about this black?Craftsperson: We put jaggery and iron in saline water for 20 days. When this juice is applied to cloth treated with myrobolan, it turns black. For red, we apply alum to the cloth. Amrita: So it serves as a mordant. Craftsperson: We put jaji leaves and alizarin lumps to boil in a copper pot. So the pale alum turns red, like this. And the copper helps to make the colour vivid. 
1694
1695Nissim: The English East India Company gave an impetus to the textile trade. In 1606, a Qutbshahi decree allowed a Dutch company to open an office in Machilipatnam. Later, the English followed suit. Maitreyi: In the 16th-18th centuries, India's major export was cloth. Such was the volume of our trade with Europe, that many English words like chintz, shawl, pyjama, dungaree, khaki, etc are of Indian origin. Nissim: Till the 18th century, India was an industrial country, famous for its variety of products. These relied more on skill than on technology. Europe was still mainly agrarian. No wonder the demand for our artefacts grew. Industry was expanding in Europe too, but differently. Maitreyi: This difference formed the basis of their progress. Their industry relied on machines and technology, ours was based on skill and fine craftsmanship, learnt through years of practice and hard work, passed on from ustad or master to shagird or pupil. This is what attracted Europe to India. Our products found a ready market there. 
1696
1697Nissim: By the 17th century Indian textiles were so popular, they became a threat to England's textile industry. At the start of the 18th century, a new law prohibited the import of Indian textiles. Later, even the wearing of printed garments was banned. Maitreyi: The Industrial Revolution made English cloth cheap, and the Indian handloom industry collapsed. This change was part of a political transition which spelt the fall of the Mughal Empire. 
1698----------------------------------------
1699Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 9: Stagnation & a Changing World (Chandita Mukherjee) – Pad. ma
1700
1701https://pad.ma/CGD/player
1702https://pad.ma/CGD/player
1703Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 9: Stagnation & a Changing World
1704
1705Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:49:24; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 10. 932; Saturation: 0. 062; Lightness: 0. 402; Volume: 0. 236; Cuts per Minute: 7. 185; Words per Minute: 77. 114;
1706
1707Summary: This episode narrates the decline of science and the growing European interest in India. We travel to Jamasalaya in Gujarat, a ship-building port, where ships were made for European sea-faring in the 17th century. We understand the importance of the Renaissance in Europe, and its effects in Jaipur's Jantar Mantar (astronomical observatories built by Maharaja Jai Singh). Finally, we head to Mysore, where we see a rebelling Tipu Sultan develops armaments and his defeat as the beginning of colonial rule. 
1708
1709History of science and technology in India 
1710
1711https://pad.ma/CGD/96p. jpg
1712
1713https://pad.ma/CGD/96p. jpg
1714
1715Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 9: Stagnation & a Changing World
1716https://pad.ma/CGD
1717
1718https://pad.ma/CGD/256p. jpg
1719Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:49:24; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 10. 932; Saturation: 0. 062; Lightness: 0. 402; Volume: 0. 236; Cuts per Minute: 7. 185; Words per Minute: 77. 114;
1720
1721Summary: This episode narrates the decline of science and the growing European interest in India. We travel to Jamasalaya in Gujarat, a ship-building port, where ships were made for European sea-faring in the 17th century. We understand the importance of the Renaissance in Europe, and its effects in Jaipur's Jantar Mantar (astronomical observatories built by Maharaja Jai Singh). Finally, we head to Mysore, where we see a rebelling Tipu Sultan develops armaments and his defeat as the beginning of colonial rule. 
1722
1723Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 9: Stagnation & a Changing World
1724
1725Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit Duration: 00:49:24; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 10. 932; Saturation: 0. 062; Lightness: 0. 402; Volume: 0. 236; Cuts per Minute: 7. 185; Words per Minute: 77. 114 
1726
1727Summary: This episode narrates the decline of science and the growing European interest in India. We travel to Jamasalaya in Gujarat, a ship-building port, where ships were made for European sea-faring in the 17th century. We understand the importance of the Renaissance in Europe, and its effects in Jaipur's Jantar Mantar (astronomical observatories built by Maharaja Jai Singh). Finally, we head to Mysore, where we see a rebelling Tipu Sultan develops armaments and his defeat as the beginning of colonial rule. 
1728
1729Bharat ki Chhap:EPISODE 9
1730
1731Stagnation and a Changing World  (1600-1800 A. D. )
1732
17331. Shivaji Fort And The End Of Mughal Empire
1734
1735This episode begins with a visit to Shivaji fort. This marks a time in our history of the breakup of the Mughal empire, and local principalities were being formed again as had happened earlier. This is also the time of the Bhakti movement and Tukaram, who talks about God in a direct and personal relation, not mediated by a Brahmin or a pundit who tells what ritual is to be performed, how much money should be given to ensure your place in heaven and so on. The Bhakti movement goes to almost all corners of India, and people are talking to god like to a parent, brother, sister, a child. This is completely new and a threat to the authority of upper caste people and the caste system itself. 
1736
1737People in the Bhakti movement also formed cohesive communities, where people helped each other and were not acrimonious or feudal. It wasn’t just about a poet and his lovely songs that became popular. It was about a community that gathered around this figure. Many of these movements across history have originated from the lower classes or castes, whether the Bhakti or Sufi movement, Purandaradasa or Guru Nanak all had origins as peasants, craftspeople or artists. 
1738
17392. Sufi is now more associated with a musical genre rather than a movement, like sufi music or sufi rock. Even though it originated as a belief or a longing even. The dargahs in east Punjab that were abandoned during partition are now being taken care of by the dalits in the region; the poorest of the poor Hindus are tending to the dargahs now, singing qawalis and living there. In this scene the iconoclastic values of those in the Bhakti movement are being shown, their militant temperament of rebellion against the existing order. 
1740
1741In this period we find that any regional king challenging the centre won a place in the local people's hearts. Shivaji's fort here, Bhopalgarh - known today as Banurgarh - is not very famous. But it bordered the Bijapur kingdom and stories are still told of Shivaji's conflicts with Bijapur's Adil shahi rulers. Aurangzeb's last days saw the Mughal empire weaken. One cause - and also effect – was the growth of a number of regional movements. Shivaji, starting out as a small jagirdar, swore to establish a Maratha kingdom. He encouraged a new sense of unity, in which language, religion and region were combined. Yet we can see in this a sort of nationalism,for there was, then, no sense of unity at a national level. How ironical that today Shivaji is the ideal for those who sow discord among people in the name of language and religion. 
1742
1743Banurgarh, Maharashtra
1744
1745This group is singing Tukaram's abhangs (hymns). Tukaram was Shivaji's contemporary. His abhangs in Marathi stressed equality and unity. 
1746
1747We devotees of Vishnu are soft as waxBut we can also be as hard as steelTo the good man we can give our allBut we can take the life of the one who heeds us not
1748
1749It's significant how, besides love, and devotion, there is a militant spirit here as well. The Sufi and Bhakti traditions helped regional languages to grow, along with social awareness. Kabir, for instance, and Akho of Gujarat, said that Sanskrit could not serve to reach people. These bhaktas (devotees) chose to write in their local languages. Most of them were non-brahman - Kabir was weaver, Tukaram a shopkeeper, in Mirabai's hymns we hear an oppressed woman's voice. Purandaradas, Nanak – all had peasant or artisan origins. Chaitanya's hymns in Bengal, the Gurbani in Punjab, the rebellious Sufi writings - most literature of the time is religious. Many saints and pirs advocated social reform. They opposed orthodoxy and casteism, and their following grew. 
1750
1751Nissim: In places, this awakening took a political form. The Maratha revolt was on; now the Bundelas, Jats, Sikhs, Afghans also took up arms. Aurangzeb and the later Mughal emperors had to face wars and rebellions on every side. Maitreyi: This rampant division was to help the British greatly. Yet, when they first came here as traders, the Mughal empire was all-powerful, with Jehangir on the throne. The East India Co. Had not found it easy then to gain a foothold in Surat. 
1752
17533. Noorjahan Ka Bhapka, or stories still missing from the archive:
1754
1755In the process of shooting 12 episodes and one concluding episode, each of 50 minutes, we came across and heard of hundreds of things that we wanted to shoot. For this episode we had in fact shot an entire segment on Noorjahan ka bhapka but were unable to include it. 
1756
1757From an incidental mention of Noor Jehan ka bhapka we attempted to unravel the story of its origins and current use. Noor Jehan ka bhapka literally means the steam pot or bhaap or steam making pot of Noor Jehan. Seemingly Noor Jehan may have wanted her own source of income for her enjoyments and luxuries because she was not only an inventor of the bhapka but a shrewd businesswoman who used it to make money. The bhapka is a steam pot which technically can be described as a distillation device. It was used to extract many things from the rose. One is the ittar i. e. the oil of roses, then rose water which can be added to food, put in bathwater etc. , gulkhand which is the jam made out of rose petals. The latter is made after the rose oil has been extracted and the remaining mass of rose residue is cooked with some gudh (jaggery). This also has a delightful smell is put in paan, or eaten with roti like murabba. 
1758
1759Surat, Gujarat
1760
1761Surat, Gujarat
1762
1763Surat, on the west coast, was the chief Mughal port, even before the European traders arrived. Situated south of the Tapti, it was directly linked to the western sea routes. Only a structure or two remains of the Portuguese, English and Dutch warehouses. One is now a school, another a rest-house. 
1764
1765And these ruins – the English EIC's first base in India. The East India Co. Was formed on the last day of 1600. The British needed an imperial firman to trade in Surat, which the Portuguese did their best to prevent. It took twelve years of diplomatic effort for the British to achieve their goal. 
1766
1767Surat became the centre of British trade. The chief exports then were spices and indigo. Once the British and Dutch began to export textiles, that surpassed all other items. The growing demand in Europe led to a boom in textile production. Yet no improvements in technology took place. Many more artisans were called to Gujarat instead, and the work divided into stages - such as in the making of gold and silver threads. Besides, production was organised by middlemen. The profits went to them, and to the moneylenders. The artisans had no capital and were too poorly paid to introduce new techniques. The wealthy did not care to invest in such experimentsTheir money was spent on rituals and charities. 
1768
1769European goods were not in demand in India, except from some objects of luxury. So our textiles and spices earned bullion in return - gold and silver from South American and African mines. For example, the bullion that came from England in 1680 alone, was worth more than £120,000! Our ancient trade with Rome was of this nature - then, too, our exports brought gold in return. 
1770
17714. Ports And Routes Of this Time: The Ain-a-Akbari reveals in the atlas of Mughal empire that the only way to get to the West was Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh, to Surat and then across the sea. Similarly anyone coming to Agra or Delhi had to come via Surat, which was the big port while Bombay was still in the distant future. 
1772
1773Boatyards at Jam Salaya have existed for a really long time. These are boats made entirely built of wood and excepting for few iron nails and htings there is no metal in them so they cant be caught on radar. They can stealthily travel in the dark, and often the sailors on these boats use wind power and the sails rather than motor power. This is perhaps why the wooden boats of Jam Salaya are often used for smuggling as well in the contemporary. 
1774
1775The British also wanted large quantities of saltpetre, a mineral used in making gunpowder. The Mughals realised the inherent danger,and banned saltpetre export. Why, then, were the British given other concessions? Our navigation and military technology were weak,while The British had these advantages. The Mughals were forced to give in on some counts - paving the way for British rule in India. Ironically, many European ships were Indian-built!
1776
1777Jam Salaya, Jamnagar, Gujarat
1778
17795. The Craft Of Boat Building
1780
1781One remarkable aspect of science and technology in India is how it persisted even though there were often not textual records since crafts people were not always literate, or did not know how to make designs and maps. In this scene the master mistry Isaag Bhai is asked – what is your design or your drawing, on the basis of which you will build a large wooden ship. And he says the design is in my mind, when I saw the piece of wood then I meditated on the log and I knew what shape of boat would emerge. 
1782
1783The workers in the boatyard slice the wood according to his instructions and put it together. And this is Isaag Bhai’s skill, that by an unknown algorithm in his head he is able to convert a truckload of wooden logs into a boat. This is a kind of knowledge that is not shareable and can’t be recorded really, and so is often disregarded by scholars. 
1784
1785That Isaag Bhai can look at the logs and imagine a great big ‘brig’ or giant ship, is remarkable and is a form of knowledge that is hard to archive or even hold onto. He can’t abstract from this to other or all ship building tactics and therefore in a sense according to modern standards of science, he knows nothing. Even if it is actually a fairly complex series of things and acts that are being put together in his head. Perhaps the only corollary in the contemporary everyday is that of the blouse tailor who looks at the body of a woman, takes 16 different specific measurements and makes her a fitting blouse, as opposed to the standardized sizes of the west (size 0, 6 or 12). 
1786
1787Also how people put together mangalore tiles to make their roofs, or floor tilesin a specific pattern. There are several such similar examples of how knowledge and skills that are inarticulate or have not been articulated are infact part of the everyday fabric of science and technology in our lives. 
1788
1789Where can I find master-carpenter Isakbhai?
1790
1791Amrita: So the work's going well! Isakbhai: Yes, quite well Amrita: Are many wooden ships built in this port?Isakbhai: About 200 every year. Amrita: You said you'd show me those plank joint?Isakbhai: Yes, I'll just instruct my men and we'll go down. 
1792
1793Jamsalaya, near Jamnagar on the Gujarat coast is among the few places where the old ship-building tradition still survives. This 350-ton ship, the Sufiya-al-Olia is the largest being built this year. Europe's supremacy in the 17th and 18th centuries owed much to its sea power and its ships. We, too , had been seafaring traders for centuries, and we had expert boat- and ship-builders. Gradually Portugal, Holland, England - all began to have ships built here. 
1794
1795In Mughal miniatures I've seen rabetted joints like these. Our ship building differed in some ways from the European technique - as in these skilfully made joints. The planks are arranged so that there is no gap between them and the surface is smooth. They inserted cottonwool soaked in oil to fill gaps. The wood expanded in water, making the ship waterproof. European ships had ordinary joints, filled in and coated with oakum for waterproofing. Made of tar and fibres, oakum was expensive. A 500-ton ship built here could save the British upto £1,000 a fairly large sum in the 18th century. 
1796
1797And the labour was cheap, the craftsmanship good. Teakwood was easily available. No wonder the Europeans had their ships made here. The Sufiya-al-Olia, too, is in the Indo-European mould. Such ships are called brigs. One Indian borrowing from the European technique was the use of nails. Earlier, they used to make holes in the planks and tie together with ropes of coconut fibre. The Europeans were apprehensive - what if the ropes gave way and let the water in?
1798
1799Yet Indian sailors had long voyaged in such ships to far-off countries. But to meet the European need they had to adopt nails. And perhaps they realised that nails were stronger. Amrita: Could I see the ships plans?Isakbhai: Well, the plan is only in my head - I know the relative proportions etc. 
1800
1801Maitreyi: Master carpenter Isakbhai told Amrita that he never draws plans on paper. He relies on memory and instructs his workers orally. This has been a weakness of our scientific tradition. Until knowledge and experience are set down so that others may have access to them, the learning is confined to a few apprentices. If it stays oral, rules and principles are not formed. It does not develop beyond a point; nor can its basic tenets be applied to other fields. Nissim: We're discussing the period from 1600-1800. Centuries before this, India, China and the Arabs had vigorous seafaring traditions. The Chinese had, long ago, invented the compass. Why, then, by the early 16th century was it Europe alone that commanded the seas and ruled over the world's nations for centuries?
1802
1803Maitreyi: There are no easy answers - we have to look at a number of related factors. One, Asian ships rarely ventured mid-ocean. They sailed along the coast from port to port following their centuries-old trade routes. The knowledge of routes and stars needed for this was handed down orally to each generation. New instruments, maps etc would have been required if they had sailed the high seas – a need never felt. Nissim: What, then, impelled the Europeans to risk to mid-ocean dangers? What was happening in Europe then? The old land route to Asia was now blocked by the Ottoman empire. Thus sea routes for trade had to be found. 
1804
1805Maitreyi: Also, in the new cities a new merchant capitalist class was emerging. These people needed markets to sell their goods; they were ready to invest capital in better ships, improved instruments, the search for new lands. Christian missionary zeal also played a part. 
1806
1807Amrita: The Renaissance was on in Europe - a new age, which inspired a new self-confidence. There was a desire for new knowledge, an openness in thinking, which encouraged science and the arts to grow. I have some slides which provide a glimpse of that age. 
1808
18096. Renaissance: The renaissance in Europe, in particular the ideas of Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72) and the tenets of Renaissance humanism, consider man to be the centre of the universe (Encyclopedia Brittanica on Renaissance). New ideas were coming from the Greek, Arabs, India and China and were also travelling. Ibn-Al-Haytem or Al Hazen from Basra was a great scholar and he eventually lived and died in Cairo, Egypt. 
1810
1811He absorbed all these influences from different countries. His works on optics had a far-reaching influence on everybody. His philosophy was absorbed even into paintings, and led to the laws of perspective being deployed by the Dutch masters in their paintings. Or even Italian masters and the depiction of objects as we really see them, near or far. In the world of paintings this was radical and revolutionary, since up till then art was two dimensional. 
1812
1813See this clip from 1001 Inventions and the Library of Secrets about Ibn Al Haythem <a href="https://www. youtube. com/watch?v=zORAtVjl23E">https://www. youtube. com/watch?v=zORAtVjl23E</a>
1814
18157. Measures across the World: There was an obsession during this period with accurate observations, which also had its link to practical and financial reasons. Long sea voyages were undertaken, trade agreements and insurance was dependent on accuracy. The artist, scientist and mechanic their jobs overlapped after the renaissance, and the symbol of this union was Leonardo Da Vinci, who worked and made innovations in different fields. 
1816
1817He also tried to understand the workings of the human body and make mechanical devices based on this study of human and animal body movement. 
1818
1819To aspire to human flight is perhaps an ancient desire in all cultures, as is evident from the story of Udhan Khatolas in India, or Icarus from Greece who fell to his death when he flew too close to the sun. 
1820
1821A new worldview and a changing society can be seen in the paintings. Now man was the centre of the universe. The new ideas touched all aspects of life. The Renaissance, though born in Europe, owed much to contact with the Arab world. This contact led to the wisdom of ancient Greece being rediscovered. Arab learning, too, was absorbed - this included Chinese and Indian science. An example is Al-Hasan's work on optics, which had a far-reaching influence. It brought into painting the law of perspective - the depiction of objects as we really see them, depending on how near, or far from us, they are. 
1822
1823Accurate observation was also needed for long sea voyages and in trade and the search for new lands. Such were the times that the roles of artist, scientist, mechanic tended to overlap. The symbol of this union is Leonardo da Vinci. He tried to know the secrets of nature to understand the workings of the human body. 
1824
1825He drew designs for machines. He studied the anatomy of birds and imagined human flight. To observe, understand, experiment -this was the character of the age which began with the Renaissance. 
1826
1827An important aspect was the attempt to understand nature. Thus, besides astronomy, physics and maths grew. There were some Indians who were interested in science, who knew of developments in Europe. Yet work here was confined to refining old knowledge. The astronomy of scholars like Jaisingh was limited to accurate records and predictions. 
1828
18298. Scholars In India And Books:
1830
1831Scholars in India like Jai Singh and Tipu Sultan were aware of the happenings in Europe around this period of their Renaissance. They sent emissaries out who found out things for them and bought books for them and then they translated these books into their languages. They got foreign journals delivered to them. As with other parts of the world, they too were obsessed with accuracy and correctness and objectivity of observation. 
1832
1833If you go the libarary in the city palace museum in Jaipur you will see a collection of all sorts of Latin and French tomes. How did they get here? Which agents have gone and bought them, or which book sellers sent it to India. 
1834
1835Scholars like Tipu Sultan and Jai Singh would send some people down to the port of Surat, who would then take a boat to Europe or a passing trading ship, and buy all these books that we see in the libraries here. Tipu Sultan was having regular correspondence in French with many people. He was a member of the Jacobian society which was a socialist society and used to receive socialist tracts, though ironically he was a royal feudal himself. 
1836
1837Amrita: Jaisingh must have known of Newton's Principia, published in the year of his birth. The work of Copernicus and Galileo must have been familiar to him. Maitreyi: He is criticised for his pre-telescopic astronomy. Yet he must have used the telescope, for he writes about the moons of Jupiter, which are invisible to the naked eye. Amrita: Yet European scholars used the telescope widely only after 1800. Maitreyi: Yes, Jaisingh was unique in his own time and society. 
1838
18399. Jaisingh’s Story, or Telling Time In The Medieval Ages:
1840
1841Jaisingh had an obsession with time and calendric sciences and tuning up the calendar to actual observed phenomena in the sky above. He built these huge instruments. Other instruments like sextants made in brass get shaky and worn out. The angles are not exactly correct and they are hand held so subjectivity of the user is also involved. 
1842
1843Jaisingh had heard about Ulugh Beg’s observatory, which were about masonry structures which were unshakeable. He took the permission of the then Mughal emperor Mohammad Shah Rangila who was drunk and barely aware of what was going on. He gave Jaisingh permission, and he set up 5 observatories in Benares, Gwalior, Ujjain, Jaipur, Delhi. 
1844
1845These sites were chosen because of their altitude, and on account of their latitude and longitude. They were comparisons of the readings from all these places. It took a number of years to do this elaborate operation. Most architecturally attractive one is in Jaipur though these are built to be instruments and not beautiful architecture. Its sad that how to use those instruments or readings is not known very well today and the only ones who use it now are astrologers and oracles, and not really scientists. I wish there was a way that school children were told how to take readings of the sun on the day they visit these ancient observatories and you know somebody was doing something to connect us with these structures rather than seeing them as symbolic and beautiful things from the past. 
1846
1847Lot of scholars criticize Jaisingh because they say he had telescopes and why didn’t he use them. Why did he insist on these pneumonic instruments that he built? Why didn’t he look at the sky through telescopes?
1848
1849That’s because Western science often valorizes what they do and they see it as the only way possible to deal with a phenomenon. So they say that if he wants to know about the stars, about movement of constellations in the sky and so why is he not using telescopes. It is like a toy for him, that brings distant objects closer to see the moons of Jupiter. 
1850
1851But Jaisingh’s objective was not to peer at the sky but he wanted to make a calendar. Then the Mughal empire could have fixed dates for holidays and Holi on different days across the empire, or farmers that have to pay lagaan on a fixed day. Everything could be scheduled especially for bureaucracy to manage. He wanted to make a standardized calendar, to predict eclipses, time of dawn and dusk at different times of the year and other things with to do with the productivity of the farmer. He wasn’t interested in the solar system out there. We should be aware and wary of judging the quests at an earlier time. 
1852
1853The trouble with Jaisingh was that he was not encouraged by the society that he lived in, his whole vision of peace and of building this new city Jaipur that is a planned city – all this was far ahead of his time. His planned city had market places with shops and residential spaces for crafts people, it was beautifully and thoughtfully laid out with broad avenues and mohallas. It was not much appreciated by people around him and it went the way of the entire Mughal empire. 
1854
1855A Mughal feudatory, he later built the city of Jaipur. He was a descendant of the Kachchwaha Rajputs, rulers of Amer for some 600 years. Akbar's policy of unity was accepted by Jaisingh's ancestor, Bhar Mal, who married his daughter to Akbar. Later, Mansingh of Amer was Akbar's commander-in-chief. Jaisingh was 13 when he came to the throne in 1700. Aurangzeb was then in power. In the wars of succession after Aurangzeb's death, Jaisingh, too, was forced to take sides. Eventually, he earned much prestige. Under Mohammed Shah 'Rangila', he held many key posts. 
1856
1857Amer Fort, Jaipur, Rajasthan
1858
1859Despite military campaigns, postings in Malwa, Agra etc, he kept alive his childhood interest in astronomy. Later, when in Amer again,he was able to devote more time to astronomy. He made a book of his astronomical tables - the Zeij Mohammed Shahi. 
1860
1861Jaipur, Rajasthan
1862
1863In the preface, Jaisingh writes - The observes star positions differ from those given in existing tables. Sawai Jaisingh found that the rising and setting of planets, times of eclipses, these things also differed. Affairs of state and of religion depended on these, and so he represented the matter to the Emperor, who replied, “Since you are learned in science, do you labour to ascertain the point in question”. Then he built instruments of his own invention in Shahjahanabad, Jaipur, Mathura, Benares, Ujjain. The places of the stars were daily observed and a book written in His Majesty's name. When the places of stars, times of new moons, eclipses of sun and moon and planetary conjunctions are computed by the book, they will arrive as near as possible at the truth. They are, in fact, seen and confirmed every day at the observatory
1864
1865Guide: This small Samrat Yantra shows the local time from six a. m. Onwards. Nine thirty, ten – and five, ten, fifteen past ten. Raghu: How much does it vary from Indian Standard Time?Guide: By 25 minutes. If you add that difference, it should be 10:40 now. Raghu: That's right!
1866
1867Some 300 years earlier, another astronomer-king - Ulugh Beg of Samarkand - had also had large instruments built. His work greatly influenced Jaisingh. 
1868
1869Ranjan: Raghu, wasn't Jaisingh's astronomy aimed mainly at an accurate calendar for rituals?Raghu:Also administration. But yes, his astronomy was limited. What was unique was his reliance on observation of which he kept records. He invented instruments, used the method of science. 
1870
1871He believed large masonry instruments would be stable, and therefore more accurate. Also, fine etchings on small metal instruments were not easy to make. Nor are such instruments very durable. But the very size of Jaisingh's instruments make them difficult to modify or improve. A small change in design would cost much labour. Nor can such instruments be made in large numbers. 
1872
1873European instruments had scope for improvement. Jaisingh adopted the traditions of Greece, Arabia, Central Asia. He sent for books from Europe. Here is Ptolemy's Al Majast which Jaisingh had translated from Arabic. For over 1,000 years it was a basic text for Arab and European astronomers. There are also books from Jaisingh's time - Grosser's Atlas, De la Hire's Tabulae Astronomicae, Flamsteed's star catalogue and instruments descriptions. And yes, Jaisingh's own Zeij Mohammed Shahi. It refers to the elliptical orbits of planets - till then, Asian tradition saw the orbits as circular. Jaisingh's city plans for Jaipur are also kept here. Right, it's over to you!
1874
1875Jaipur was founded in 1727. Fifteen centuries after the Kushana cities, this was India's first large, planned city. The old city is still quite unchanged. This is Badi Chaupar - where two main streets intersect. These chaupars served as meeting places. The city had to be populated, made prosperous. Jaisingh invited traders, had mansions built offered tax concessions. Many traders were thus attracted to Jaipur. Roads were the hub of city life. First-floor balconies afforded a view of royal processions and festive celebrations. Shops were built on the ground floors. The wares then sold in Jaipur's shops can be found even today. Many handicraft traditions still survive. Tye-and-dye fabrics, enamelling. 
1876
1877Raghu: Ranjan, why do you think Jaisingh built this city? Ranjan: Well, his importance as a Mughal administrator was growing, so he had a large army and a large civil establishment. Amer's population, too, had grown. And he had a good architect, Vidhyadhar, who may have inspired him to plan his new capital. Raghu: Also, the Mughal empire was disintegrating - could Jaipur have been a declaration of independence by Jaisingh? His own city, named after him?Ranjan: Yes, that's quite likely. 
1878
187910. Exchanging books with the West:
1880
1881Jaisingh and Tipu Sultan are both aware of what’s happening in the west, they are aware and sending for books, telescopes, guns. Jaisingh built several very big cannons which had names like ships. 
1882
1883The things that they were looking for couldn’t be found in older texts. They were trying to create a synthesis between the craft knowledge that they had access to and scientific ideas locally and across the world that they had access to. Both were interested in economic opportunities and trade for themselves and their people because they would stand to earn from taxation of income. Their contemporaries were not interested in these things. 
1884
188511. We chose Tipu and Jaisingh for BKC because these are the most outstanding and prominent even if there were other individuals trying things on their own.  There were no schools or universities where this kind of curiosity that these rules had as individuals could be encouraged and cultivated. It could have been possible for people to get trained or educated in aspects of science and technology and encouraged to invent. Patronage didn’t go that far. 
1886
1887There were people experimenting with fireworks, gunpowder and explosives and few inventors who went after individual things but not about a more expansive idea of life or principles of science involved. 
1888
1889The interest in explosives and firecrackers was eventually to create a missile which would carry a pack load and explode when it landed. Cannons could only fire heavy cannon balls only within viewing distance. A missile or rocket could go to unseen places and cause damage. 
1890
1891After Jaisingh, his Jantar Mantars began to crumble. His findings were not used by calendar-makers, who still relied on outdated information. His emphasis on observation was also in vain. 250 years later, the Jaipur and Delhi Jantar Mantars are tourist attractions. And they reflect Jaisingh's deep interest in science. But it's a pity that he was unable to give his age a new direction. 
1892
1893He seems isolated in his own time. More people like him might have made a difference. Had other places seen a similar economic progress - and had that been a spur to technology - then we might have been better prepared to confront the rising British power. 
1894
189512. Tipu and Jaisingh were attempting to find a cohesive view of the world, but they too faced opposition to their ideas and other difficulties.  Tipu was always caught in battle with British and he was eventually defeated and controlled. The British tried to destroy his reputation and still he was popular amongst people, and after his death they tried to erase him and didn’t allow anyone to commemorate him. 
1896
1897Tipu was associated with a tiger- the tiger of Mysore. He commissioned someone to make a mechanical toy where the British solider is being bitten and eaten up by the tiger. The British took it off to the Victoria and Albert museum even though it’s a propaganda thing against them. 
1898
1899Jaisingh’s achievements as prince of peace and scientist and thinker, and all that went away with the end of the Mughal empire. 
1900
1901The British raj then was growingHear, oh hear, this was clearly soWas it so clear? Today, we knowDid people then sense how the wind was blowing?Time passed, and at last they noticed the trendThat cannon, guns, ships had won the dayThe printed book was a means to this endThe Mughals and rajas no longer held swayIn the west arosethe winds of changeNobody recognised themand this was strangeThey blew, foul and fair, everywhereReason dispelled darknessThe earth was not the centreNew ideas ushered inthe age of the inventorYet the answer is unclearWhy did that revolution not happen there?
1902
1903Nissim: By the 18th century, Indian rulers began to realise that the British were no ordinary foes. Tipu Sultan of Mysore seems to have had an especially keen sense of the events of his time. In this respect he stands apart from the Marathas and the Nizam, who sided with the British against Tipu.  Maitreyi: Jaisingh's interest in science had been personal. In Tipu's Mysore, technology was used to meet the challenge and to fulfill daily needs. Other parts of the country were also making progress - Agra was flourishing, Murshidabad was a big centre for silks and ivory. The Industrial Revolution had not yet affected our handicrafts and markets. Nissim: We've chosen Mysore as an example because events there came together in a unique way, encouraged and shaped by Tipu Sultan's foresight. 
1904
1905By the late 18th century Mysore was the only kingdom still opposing the British. The EIC might have agreed to a compromise as it was nearly bankrupt. Tipu, however, was not willing to negotiate. The Anglo-Mysore wars begun in Hyder Ali's time continued. Inevitably, this atmosphere led to innovations in the area of military technology. Weapons were improved, and troops were better organised. There was a greater emphasis on infantry. Tipu's soldiers had guns and muskets made in Mysore. He also set up a cannon foundry. 
1906
1907The good quality iron found in the area was used for making rockets as well. Rockets were first used in warfare in 13th century China, and later in Europe till the cannon made rockets obsolete. Some 250 years later they were revived in Mysore. This was where gunpowder and weapons were stored. 
1908
1909Tipu's army made improved rockets and used them very effectively. The cylinder was now made of iron, which solved the problem of premature explosion. Also, more gunpowder could be packed in. These rockets had a range of upto two km. In the Anglo-Mysore wars rockets created much confusion in British ranks. 
1910
1911Tipu issued several economic ordinances. One aimed to stop landless farmers being exploited. If a farmer ran away due to oppression the landlord would be fined. Tipu's idea of justice was linked to economic progress: God breathed life into clay and gave it a human form. Then some were blessed with power and status, honoured with wealth and kingship, that they might help the weak, helpless and poor, and increase the well-being of the people. 
1912
1913Maitreyi: Justice seems to have been uppermost in his mind. He took a keen interest in the French Revolution. A king in sympathy with a revolution to end monarchy! He studied the American Revolution as well.  Nissim: The American Declaration of Independence strengthened Tipu's nationalist feelings. He sent for books on every subject from Europe, wrote to the French Academy about matters of science. He tried to apply all the latest knowledge, and was curious about everyday, useful things. Maitreyi: Yes – ranging from improved fodder for army cattle to getting a European text on the barometer translated. 
1914
1915Srirangapatna, Karnataka
1916
1917Mysore's wealth was based on its forests and agriculture. Along with sandalwood and pepper exports, there was an emphasis on manufactured goods. After their victory over Mysore the British asked the EIC's Dr. Francis Buchanan to conduct a survey. Buchanan made a comprehensive report of the area's agriculture, trade, industries. He drew sketches of craft and agricultural tools. The excellent local breeds of cattle impressed him. He described the glass, steel and oil industries. 
1918
1919Tipu's policy was to foster self-reliance by acquiring the relevant technological know-how. He sent for silkworms and their eggs from Muscat and for people trained in silk production. And so began Bangalore's silk industry. The experiment failed at that time, but it was a beginning. 
1920
192113. Stealing Silk: Tipu Sultan stole silk from China. He sent a trade delegation out to china who did industrial espionage for him and brought back silk worm eggs and mulberry seeds. The Chinese had so bred the silk worm that it would only eat mulberry leaves and wouldn’t survive on any other plant. With this ingenious twinning, they ensured that even if silkworms were stolen they didn’t last long away from a mulberry tree. The cocoons were then harvested for silk and only a few were kept for breeding. 
1922
1923The Chinese zealously guarded their knowledge about how to make silk, and forbade foreigners from taking mulberry seeds or a silk worm egg out o the country. Yet Tipu sent a party of Indian people who managed to secretly get those. They were gone for 5 years and were suspected to be dead, but they did return to India. That is how the silk industry of Mysore and the silk farm in Chenna Patanam started, and it is still there today. Till then in india we only had vanya or wild silks, such as the tussar, moogha, matka and so on. To get the shiny white silk, the specific silk worm from China was needed. 
1924
1925Government Silk Farm, Channapatna, Karnataka
1926
1927Bangalore Fort, Bangalore
1928
1929While Srirangapatna was the capital, Mysore's commercial centre was Bangalore. Every Indian currency was valid here, wrote Buchanan. 
1930
1931These ruins are all that remain of Bangalore's fort. How desolate it seems! It's hard to believe it is in the middle of the city. Then you recall that Tipu's Mysore was just as isolated - surrounded by enemies. 
1932
19334 May, 1799 - Cannons boomed relentlessly, till this wall was breached and the British entered. Tipu was killed in the fighting. Hours later, his corpse was found along with those of his men – here. The British destroyed everything. After Tipu, the kingdom of Mysore disintegrated. Enterprise and progress received a severe blow. 
1934
1935Srirangapatna, Karnataka
1936
1937One question remains - if the final victory had been Tipu Sultan's, would the story of science and technology here have been different?
1938
193914. At the end of this episode, there is a comparison with Europe and India. Europe was moving ahead very rapidly because they were using science and tech as a kind of weapon to take over the world and industrial revolution was all about that. In India we didn’t have environment conducive to scientific research and invention and all that, until the freedom struggle. Which was a long way off right now. It is then that the nationalists realize that they need to take science seriously and need to develop a kind of educational base and scope for it, labs for experiments etc. All this would happen after independence. 
1940
1941Nissim: Not only Tipu Sultan, but Jaisingh too - and before him, Akbar's courtier Fatullah Shirazi. Between 1600 and 1800 there were many individuals interested in science, but each was, in a sense, alone - not part of any broader movement. Europe was, in this respect, very different. Maitreyi: Many scientific societies came up in that period - the Royal Society of London, the French Royal Academy. The sciences were now taught in universities. The Renaissance had changed people's perceptions. And long sea voyages had brought to the fore people trained in mathematics, used to fine work as in compass or map making. The time was ripe for the scientific revolution which gave birth to modern science. Nissim: Galileo saw the universe through his telescope and Leeuwenhoek looked at micro-organisms through the microscope. Newton's Law of Gravity and calculus, Linnaeus' biological classification, Harvey's study of human anatomy - and then techniques, from pendulum clocks to chronometers for ships. The steam engine, metallurgy, so much else!Maitreyi: All this occurred because of a unique environment. Bishop Spratt of the Royal Society of London said that science was growing not just due to scholar's efforts but that mechanics' workshops, sea voyages, sports, gardens, farmers' tools -all played their parts. Those engaged in these activities should be made members of the Society. And the language of science should not be Latin, but everyday English, which has an intimacy and an ease of expression that farmers, artisans, merchants may comprehend. 
1942
1943These were the views of a bishop - and this is the type of environment science needs. Would our religious gurus have thought like this? This was one reason why Europe moved ahead. Science was used like a weapon - something the Industrial Revolution was to encourage. In India, an environment conducive to science revived only with the freedom struggle - when we realised we could never triumph unless we adopted science. 
1944
1945Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai
1946
1947Science was used to serve the selfish ends of EmpireNot just British, Portugal also shared the desire. . . for spoils. French, Dutch, Spanish bands . . . hoisted flags in foreign landsOppressed were India, Asia, AfricaDefeated were Australia and South AmericaThese regions began to lag behindWhile they progressed who ruled by forceTechnology and science were on their sideThe colonies had no recourse. . . . 
1948
1949Victoria Memorial, Kolkata
1950----------------------------------------
1951Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 10: Colonialism & the Industrial Revolution (Chandita Mukherjee) – Pad. ma
1952
1953https://pad.ma/CFR/player
1954https://pad.ma/CFR/player
1955Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 10: Colonialism & the Industrial Revolution
1956
1957Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:54:08; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 283. 489; Saturation: 0. 050; Lightness: 0. 390; Volume: 0. 283; Cuts per Minute: 6. 742; Words per Minute: 83. 877;
1958
1959
1960
1961Summary: This episode discusses the reign of British in India and its effects. It compares the dying crafts traditions of steel-making near Hyderabad with low-cost high production models of Industrial Revolution. From reformists like Radha Ram Mohan Roy to scientists like Mahendralala Sircar a new class of educated Indians took the lead in reform and stressed education. By the end of the 19th century, political awareness was sweeping the country and a new spirit of nationalism emerging. 
1962
1963History of science and technology in India 
1964
1965https://pad.ma/CFR/96p. jpg
1966
1967https://pad.ma/CFR/96p. jpg
1968
1969Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 10: Colonialism & the Industrial Revolution
1970https://pad.ma/CFR
1971
1972https://pad.ma/CFR/256p. jpg
1973Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:54:08; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 283. 489; Saturation: 0. 050; Lightness: 0. 390; Volume: 0. 283; Cuts per Minute: 6. 742; Words per Minute: 83. 877;
1974
1975Summary: This episode discusses the reign of British in India and its effects. It compares the dying crafts traditions of steel-making near Hyderabad with low-cost high production models of Industrial Revolution. From reformists like Radha Ram Mohan Roy to scientists like Mahendralala Sircar a new class of educated Indians took the lead in reform and stressed education. By the end of the 19th century, political awareness was sweeping the country and a new spirit of nationalism emerging. 
1976
1977Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 10: Colonialism & the Industrial Revolution
1978
1979Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit Duration: 00:54:08; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 283. 489; Saturation: 0. 050; Lightness: 0. 390; Volume: 0. 283; Cuts per Minute: 6. 742; Words per Minute: 83. 877 
1980
1981Summary: This episode discusses the reign of British in India and its effects. It compares the dying crafts traditions of steel-making near Hyderabad with low-cost high production models of Industrial Revolution. From reformists like Radha Ram Mohan Roy to scientists like Mahendralala Sircar a new class of educated Indians took the lead in reform and stressed education. By the end of the 19th century, political awareness was sweeping the country and a new spirit of nationalism emerging. 
1982
1983Bharat ki Chhap: EPISODE 10
1984
1985Colonialism and the Industrialization Revolution (1800-1900 A. D. )
1986
19871. This episode 10 is about Industrial Revolution in Europe and also about the colonization of India. Since two centuries, from the late 1600 there have been ‘visitors’ to India like the British, Spanish, French, Dutch, Portuguese sailing all over the world and coming to India. All these nations wanted to build worldwide empires. By the end of the 18th century and early 19th century it was clear that either England or France would triumph and here too we see those battles played out. 
1988
1989Nissim: For more than two centuries, trading ships - British, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch – had been sailing all over the world. Trade was linking the world together. Now these nations sought to build worldwide empires. And, by the end of the 18th century, it was clear that either England would triumph or France. Maitreyi: Initially, these seemed to be trading companies voyaging only for profit. But it was not that simple. In India the ruling class had become weak and these traders took full advantage of this. And in 1757 – thousands of miles from Europe, in a corner of India, in Plassey - were laid the foundations of the British empire. 
1990
19912. Battle of Plassey: A seemingly insignificant event in 1757, thousands of miles away from Europe takes place in a tiny corner of north Bengal, the Battle of Plassey. This laid foundations for the British Empire. 
1992
1993We travelled to Plassey to shoot this stuff. At the end of the battle, the Britist put up a cenotaph saying we won. This symbolic act actually comes from Egypt because they put up these needles and markers as triumph symbols. The Europeans just discovered this and were using things from the Greco-Roman-Egyptian world. The British were successful and started collecting money from the people who now were their subjects. 
1994
1995After Battle of Plassey the British became the diwans of Orissa, Bengal and Bihar and this gave the right to print coins because they took over the Mughal mint at Murshidabad
1996
1997The mint at Murshidabad now started printing coins in the name of Mughal Empire but it was the East India Company brought these out. This can be seen distinctly in the coinage. 
1998
1999Nissim: We come across events in history which must have seemed quite ordinary then but which later proved significant. Fights for seats of power were common enough, but the battle at Plassey was a special incident. Observers then may have thought that this battle was between Siraj-ud-daulah and his minister, Mir Jafar. But today everyone knows that the real battle was between Siraj's French allies and Mir Jafar's British friends. The British won
2000
2001This memorial commemorating the British victory still stands in the battlefield of Plassey. Over time, the pink indicating British holdingsspread across the map of India. This pink became the symbol of India's servitude. Now Murshidabad, Agra, Machilipatnam were decline, along with their industries. And unknown fishing hamlets – Bombay, Madras, Calcutta were to become the country's main cities. And the last Mughal emperor was to be denied even burial space in Delhi. 
2002
2003Hazaarduari Palace, Murshidabad, West Bengal
2004
2005Such was the success of the British, that eight years after the Battle of Plassey, Mughal emperor Shah Alam had to hand over to them the diwani of Orissa, Bengal and Bihar. These now came under the East India Company. The British now collected all the taxes -not in the form of wheat or paddy but in coins of gold and silver. Thus gold and silver for trade had no longer to be brought from England. Now gold began to flow from India to England. 
2006
20073. Loot of India:
2008
2009The gold that the British collected as taxes and all the wealth collected as lagaan is the loot of India. This was converted into gold and that gold was carried in ships to England and this gold and silver began to flow from India to England, instead of the traffic going the other way. This period was really about that reverse of bullion flow. That gold which reached England also helped finance the Industrial Revolution. Meanwhile and because of the drain of wealth from India, there is a decline of crafts in India and cities like Murshidabad, Surat and others. 
2010
2011Murshidabad, West Bengal
2012
2013This gold helped to finance the Industrial Revolution in England. Our cities began to decline. Take Murshidabad - this city of Siraj-ud-daulah was once the capital of Bengal and a major trading centre for silks, ivory and gemstones. 
2014
2015After the Battle of Plassey when this prosperous province came under the East India Company, the policy of the Company did not encourage local production. Mills in England turned out thousands of yards of cloth which needed a market. This cloth was cheap, but not as fine as Indian-made cloth. So British industrialists got their government to pass laws to enable the East India Co. to sell their cloth in India. And Indian cloth was made prohibitively expensive in England's markets. 
2016
20174. Archival Footage of BKC
2018
2019BKC was shot on celluloid film. The entire footage, including multiple takes and outtakes and footage not used, is lying in a cold storage in Byculla. I pay a lakh (1,00,000-1,25,000) a year to keep it in cold storage. Nobody is interested in it. The initial people who funded the film would not be interested. I have tried at various times to raise the money to rescan and digitize them. 
2020
2021There is a finite life to the negative. It’s already sitting there for 25 years. I don’t know what condition it is in, because I don’t have the money to open it up and to repair it if its broken. All the footage is shot in 16 mm – and there are 600-700 cans lying out there. It would be valuable footage of India in the late 80s in the period between 86 and 89 with a lot of live stuff on the streets and especially concerning science and technology. it’s a beautiful archive. 
2022
2023Murshidabad, West Bengal
2024
2025Apart from the textile industry, many other traditional industries were gradually destroyed. In 1815, the population of Murshidabad was 165,000. Fifty years later it was less than 25,000. Many other industrial towns were to become victims of economic decline. 
2026
2027The heyday of rajas and nawabs was over - how could they buy as much as before from craftsmen? And the people who who could invest money saw greater profit in the Company's trade. When all avenues of earning began to close, where did the craftsmen go?It is believed that many people shifted to agriculture. But this increased pressure on the land would have created new problems. There was less and less scope for technical skills, as there was less demand for finished goods and more for raw materials. 
2028
20295. Damascus Steel:
2030
2031This kind of steel, which has black and white zigzag patterns on them, is often called Damascus steel in the west. The zigzag patterns are called damascene work and so its associated with Damascus. 
2032
2033Wootz is made into steel. The Europeans probably Germans named this metal wootz. The Kannada and Telegu speaking lohars (metal craftspersons) used to call it ukku which is perhaps what the Europeans made into wootz. In the process of making weapons from this material, they would heat the iron or wootz at a fixed temperature, then they would beat it and sandwich charcoal powder in it and then cool it. Repeatedly they would drag it through fine charcoal powder and cool it. This is what would give the wavy black lines on the surface, and would later be called damascene work. The closer these lines were or more uniform the patter, the better the steel. It would slash and bend and be flexible and recover its shape immediately. These swords were treated by people as personalities in themselves – the sword would be imbued with wonderful qualities and magical powers, and the hero would do all kinds of deeds with it. 
2034
2035Ukku or wootz was also imported from india. This wonderful Indian steel was wanted by European surgeons, barbers because it took an edge well and didn’t wear out easily, and even if it wore out it could be sharpened again. But this tradition of a world famous trade was just smashed and destroyed. 
2036
20376. Several institutions that we visit in the BKC series are treasure houses of stuff. Like the Saraswati Mahal Library in Tanjore or the Khudha Bhashk Oriental Public Library in Patna. Or the library in Bareilly. 
2038
2039The nature of these series meant that in each episode we tried to show where we went and got these materials from. Unfortunately you can’t make stories about libraries and individuals with wonderful collections, all of which were given generously by institutions. We have done several scenes in and about Saraswati Mahal Library, the Rampur Raza Library in Rampur, the Lucknow Residency Museum, the Maharaja Sawai Jaisingh museum in Jaipur, Victoria Memorial Museum in Calcutta which were repositories of a lot of material we were able to use. We wished we had the money to go to England and go the India Office library, Victoria and Albert Museum but that wasn’t possible. 
2040
2041We should have attributed several of our other sources and private collections – the Mittals in Hyderabad for instance. Mittal was a boxwala working in the magagement of some company, but he and his wife put all their energy in collecting stuff that Hyderabad nobility was just dumping on kabadiwallas. And they have most wonderful steel, damascene knives and swords, shields, textiles and other things. 
2042
2043Another mad museum, which has everything from total junk to wonderful stuff, is the Salar Jung museum, which is a mad maniacal collection, with stuff that has been crated in 1922 and still not opened. The catalogue is so huge
2044
2045It was an age of transformations. Industries famed worldwide for centuries were now to die out. Take the legendary steel of India -the blades of which were believed never to lose their edge. 
2046
2047I was told by researchers that the steel industry was concentrated in Mysore, Salem and Indur – today's Nizamabad. 
2048
2049Char Minar, Hyderabad
2050
2051The search for this steel brought me to Hyderabad, where I found some wonderful examples. 
2052
2053Salarjung Museum, Hyderabad
2054
2055When I saw those weapons I realised why they were considered unique. Their special feature was their sharp and very durable edge. Worldwide, these swords were known as Damascus swords even though the metal was made here – often, the swords too. The Europeans named this metal 'wootz'. Kannada and Telugu-speaking blacksmiths called it ukku. To make weapons from ukku it was repeatedly heated at a fixed temperature, beaten repeatedly and then cooled. In this process, wootz was transformed into steel. It acquired a characteristic structure visible as wavy lines on its surface. The closer and more uniform these linesthe better the quality of the steel. 
2056
2057The tradition no longer survives. But Mughal and European records described it. In his Ain-e-Akbari Mughal historian Abul Fazl refers to steel made in Nirmal and Indur. The fort of Indalvai stood here, and was a centre for the manufacture and sale of steel weapons. To understand why this industry flourished here I met a geologist, Dr. S R Sharma. 
2058
2059Ranjan: Where are the iron ore deposits in Nizamabad?Dr. Sharma: There are two types of deposits in this area. One is laterite, found in the Deccan trap - indicated here in brown. The other – haematite and magnetite - is found in the granite areas, shown in pink. 
2060
2061There, beyond the hill, some 50 km away, we find remains of an iron smelting industry which used magnetite ore. And 80km away in this direction, iron was extracted from laterite ore. Both kind of iron were used here to make steel. In Konasamudram village, in the midst of houses and fields, is this rubble heap. It contains pieces of thousands of crucibles, remains of furnaces and iron slag. Such heaps are found. In many places in Nizamabad district. 
2062
2063The number of crucibles and furnaces reveal the size and extent of the local steel industry. In the Dutch East India Co records, an entry  notes the departure of a ship from Machilipatnam with 20,000 steel ingots bound for Persia. Such a huge industry needed other, ancillary industries. The furnaces and crucibles required special refractory materials. Charcoal was made for the furnaces. Then the iron, fuel, refractories and steel had to be transported over distances. When we speak of industries in India, it is cottage industries that come to mind. But this was different. Steel and its related industries were operating on a major scale here, even before the Industrial Revolution. Around 1820, British geologist Woysey wrote that the furnaces were huge - five feet deep - and could hold many crucibles. These crucibles were filled with cast iron and bits of vitreous slag. Then began the 24 hour long process of smelting. 
2064
2065Charcoal had to be added to the furnace repeatedly. Air was pumped in through four large bellows made of buffalo hide. Finally, the crucibles were removed and slowly cooled. And then the wootz ingots were heated again and again and beaten to shape the desired weapons. 
2066
2067Wootz was the stage between raw material and end product, but the process of making it was the most complex. Here the crucible's structure and composition were of utmost importance. 
2068
2069This is the lid of the crucible. These marks on it show that the hot crucible was removed from the furnace with the help of tongs. A small portion of the crucible wall is still attached to this lid. And this is an example of the base. The crucible was broken to remove the cast ingot of wootz. Obviously the crucible could be used only once. 
2070
2071photo reference
2072
2073Dr. Jhumur Lahiri has been analysing the crucibles with the help of photo-micrography. Let's first look at the design of the crucible. It's made to withstand very high temperatures. This is part of a used crucible. The shiny glaze on the inside was formed in the heat of the furnace. So was the outer glaze. The inside glaze protected the crucible from the melted iron and slag. The outer glaze kept furnace gases from entering the crucible. The melted iron collected at the bottom and formed a wootz ingot when it cooled. The slag remained on top. 
2074
2075Ranjan: Much must have depended on how the crucible was made. Dr. Lahiri: Yes. Burnt rice husk and oil were mixed with clayey soil. Ranjan: Clayey soil makes sense - it's what potters use. But why the rice husk?Dr. Lahiri: Let me show you some slides. This cross-section of the crucible shows how porous it is. This greatly increases its insulation capacity. And the porosity is because of the rice husk. Also, the husk prevents cracks from forming in the crucible. It's like the use of grass and hay in earthen huts. This husk contains a fair amount of silica, which raises the crucible's ability to withstand heat. The charred husk-seen in brown-introduces carbon into the sides of the crucible. This reduces the possibility of the crucible reacting with the slag. Ranjan: What was merely waste matter for those craftsmen, has become a record for us. The crucible shows how well they knew the properties of different substances. 
2076
2077The age of shield and sword passed. The Telengana steel industry also came to an end. Why couldn't the local craftsmen find new methods? They story of Murshidabad repeated itself. There was no finance to back steel any more. 
2078
2079Maitreyi: In England the Industrial Revolution was under way. Craftsmen were coming up with many inventions, with the full support of the capitalists. The Industrial Revolution was an age of iron and steel. Machines, ships, bridges, trains and railway tracks, huge stations,immense building and factories - how could these have been built without iron and steel?Nissim: Our high quality steel was no longer in demand. The demand was only for large-scale production at low costs. Yes, strength was a requirement. Using the Telengana steel-making technique, it might have taken years to make an iron engine! Only the Bessemer converter and open-hearth process could produce on that scale. And it's these steam engines that symbolise the Industrial Revolution. 
2080
20817. Steam Engines
2082
2083the development of steam engine is crucial to understanding the industrial revolution. Exhibits in the kolkatta birla technological museum (sic) where it is shown in sequence – photographing them was not a picnic and they wouldn’t open the showcases so we had to shoto them as they were in the glass cages, shot with glass reflecting and shadows falling. Anyway we tried to do the best we could. 
2084
2085Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, Kolkata
2086
2087The use of steam power was not something new. In 150BC an Alexandrian inventor, Hero, made this toy which used steam power. Water was heated over a flame here. The steam went into the round container and came out of these opposed pipes, making the container turn. But the potential of steam power was to be recognised and harnessed only centuries later. The 17th century offers many examples - such as Porta's apparatus, in which steam power pumps up water. And this flour mill made by Bronca. Here, a Persian wheel-type gear system uses steam rather than bullocks. The end of the 17th century saw more advanced models. In Denis Papin's engine of 1690 the use of a piston helped to lift weights with a pulley. 
2088
2089In 1702 came Thomas Savery's “Miners' Friend” - used to pump water out of coal mines. 37 years later, the merchant Newcomen made the atmospheric steam engine. Some 50 years later a tool maker at Glasgow University – James Watt - made technical improvements on Newcomen's pump. Now the steam engine became less cumbersome and also consumed less fuel. But merely using steam for engines and pumps doesn't create an Industrial Revolution. There had to be changes in other areas as well. When we watch a craftsman at work, we see that his movements are mainly of two kinds - back and forth or up and down, and circular. 
2090
20918. We have a sequence on the Industrial Revolution showing how it happened step by step. The Industrial Revolution was powered by all kinds of people, especially ordinary people. 
2092
2093Lots of capital and human investment was put into large-scale industrialization and it was a societal transformation as well in England. Farmers and craftsman went out of work and had to become part of the factory system and the artisan who used to work for himself had to become a labourer. Capitalism grew. Workers started unifying and forming unions. This led to a radicalization of people and questioning of circumstances in which they were working in these factories and in these overcrowded tenement housing and slums in the cities. In 1858 there is a great upheaval through out Europe and people began to demand their rights. Rather than the idea that science and technology brought about huge social progress, we began to think science and tech had intensified human exploitation. Much of the labour and finances for this industrialization came from colonized places like India – this is the age of contradictions which would have an impact on India as well. 
2094
2095Couldn't machines make these movements? They certainly could, and very much faster. 
2096
2097Now it took one man a single day to weave as much cloth as it had taken 300 men to weave, some 50 years earlier. Steam power and machines together made the Industrial Revolution. Human productivity was changed forever. While books are full of stories about machines that now performed human tasks, few people know that many inventors were common folk and not great scientists. Arkwright, who invented the spinning frame, was a barber. His collaborator John Kay was a watchmaker. And Cartwright, who made the first loom, was a clergyman. 
2098
2099National Rail Museum, New Delhi
2100
2101People from every class took part in this revolution. Anyone who came up with a new technique found a host people ready to invest capital. This is why British industry made such rapid progress, deeply transforming that society. This had two main aspects. One was the factory system in which the artisan now worked as labourer. The other was capitalism. 
2102
2103The Industrial Revolution brought with it not just progress, but also hardship for the working people. There, too, farmers and artisans paid the price for change. From their villages they came to work in these towns where conditions were cramped and unhealthy. And, away from air and light, they had to work 16 to 18 hours a day. Wages were so paltry that the entire family to labour - even four and five-year olds. Slowly workers began to organize themselves. 
2104
2105In 1848 the cities of Europe witnessed an upheaval. Everywhere, people began to fight for their rights. Rather than social progress science had intensified human exploitation. And much of the industrial finance came from subjugated countries like India. Thus it was an age full of contradictions. All this was to have its impact here as well. 
2106
21079. Calcutta was then the capital of British India – it looks at institutions set up by the British to study and understand this strange country with all its many aspects and how to convert resources here for economic gain for British. William Jones founded Asiatic society and the motto was to acquire knowledge of all things in Asia, manmade and natural. They made big libraries. They worked on Indian languages, archaeological remains, traditional and classical art, everything they came across. The people doing these studies were gentlemen in the colonial employment – they more or less put together their impressions, they didn’t have much methodology or framework for how they worked. Ultimately the question was whether this would lead for economic gain for Britain but apart from that some were genuine linguists and epigraphers, or others who were genuinely interested also. Not all were agents of colonialism. And now these are resources for us and we use them also in BKC. 
2108
2109There were also surveys – geological anthropological survey of India. All of them did work that is racist or questionable in other ways, but do form a resource now. 
2110
2111There were museums being set up and these museums carried away stuff from where it was in-situ and brought them to capitals to Kolkata and Delhi and so on. Some stuff was taken to capital of England, in London.  In the last few decades there has been a call for return of what has been taken to the museums of the ex-colonizers. Even the Greeks have asked the Elgin marbles (Parthenon Marbles –classical Greek sculptures) to be returned. 
2112
2113Chowringhee, CalcuttaHome of many institutions started in British times. The Asiatic Society, established in 1784, was the main centre for European intellectuals. The Society held discussions on many topics - scientific and cultural. In the words of its founder, William Jones: “We shall acquire knowledge of all things in Asia, man-made and natural!”
2114
2115After 1833, the official Surveys took forward the work of the Society on a large-scale, practical level - e. g. the Geological Survey, further down Chowringhee. 
2116
2117Indian Museum, Kolkata
2118
2119In 1866, the Society set up the famous Indian Museum in Calcutta. Here, various Surveys had their own galleries in which examples of natural resources from all over India were displayed. Why were those people so interested in all this? Was it a mere pastime? Or were the motives similar to what brought the East India Co. here? In the 19th century, British industry was seeking natural resources to provide raw materials for their mills, and for sale in world markets. The result - a collection of 15,00 plant varieties in the gallery of Calcutta's Botanical Survey. 
2120
2121Centuries ago, ayurveda too had acquired much knowledge of plants and herbs. But this tradition had almost died out. The British had commercial reasons for this classification. For this task they needed science and scientists. The top scientists in these institutions were all British. But much of the day-to-day work was done by Indians who were exposed to science while working under the British. What they learnt was a fair amount of applied science. 
2122
212310. Raw Materials: Along with the anthropological surveys and making museums and societies, the classification of raw material was done on a huge scale for the first time. This was not done for any noble purpose but for figuring out what could be turned into wealth. As a result of these surveys that went into remote areas, a lot of discoveries were made in places that had been totally forgotten by the wider Indian society. 
2124
2125Like the Harappa cities were discovered when railway track was being built, and they needed ballasts for the tracks to stop shaking when trains passed on it. Typically stones are quarried and stone gravel is used on the tracks. Since the place in Sind was all flat land and dry desert, they decided to go to some nearby ancient mound of ruins out here. Lets take the bricks from there and they started using these on the railway tracks. Then some Englishman said it looks ancient. And that’s how Alexander Cunningham was brought here and they discovered the Harappa civilization that people in India had forgotten about long ago. There was no public memory of it. 
2126
2127The place discovered fast is called Moen-Jo-Daro, or the hill of the dead, where daro is the mound, mouen- dead. 
2128
212911. Anthropological survey: The anthropological survey would be considered fake science later on. What the British did was to measure people’s noses and cheekbones, and foreheads, and decided they were less or more intelligent based on their own prejudices. Those with raised noses like aquiline features were smarter than those with flat cheekbones and broad features. All that kind of thing went on. They kept measuring the skull to determine the size of the brain inside, and then they would make pronouncements about inherent intelligence of those with larger skulls and longer foreheads. 
2130
2131The British also did some good work of restoration. The Ajanta caves. The Taj Mahal was a ruin with jumbles and bushes growing around it. Though it was a durgah there and an urs mela was held there and people knew its history. But the British did some things like take care of the garden which was overrun. 
2132
2133The classification and documentation of raw materials was done on such a large scale for the first time. The Surveys went into forests, mountains, began archaeological explorations, studied tribal people. They went to places that were not known till then. As a result the Ajanta caves, the forgotten Harappan settlements etc. were brought to our knowledge. These journeys, discoveries, new information helped us to know our resources and our history better. 
2134
2135Those working on the Surveys served British interests, but many were good scientists too - such as George Watt who founded this museum. The displays in this gallery reveal which crops the British encouraged. Take cotton, for example. They tried to get farmers to grow superior varieties of cotton, and fibres like jute, silk and hemp which were used in industries. They started plantations for growing tea, coffee and indigo. 
2136
2137In this way, much was done. But what did it mean for us? Our farmers were linked to world markets yet their technology did not change. New varieties of crops were being developed but the burden of taxes remained the same. Farmers did earn a few rupees more, but to what extent did their standard of living change? Lately historians have been concerned with such questions. 
2138
213912. All these kinds of developments, these surveys and so on, they also resulted in some changes, like new varieties of cotton and jute were introduced for packaging etc. silk and hemp was cultivated in larger quantities. Tea, coffee, indigo were introduced. Income of farmers expanded a bit, but the burden of taxes remained. The standard of living or quality of life probably did not change much. And it led intensification of exploitation of farmers. 
2140
2141Crafts were also gone, including people who made equipment for crafts too lost out.  People began to realize that things were not right and they were paying a very big price and they didn’t have any Indian leadership. Suddenly in 1857 all this sort of disenchantment and annoyance and anger coalesced into one movement. One morning in May this revolt broke out, employees in East India Company who were hired as soldiers, and ordinary farmers and crafts people got together in a revolt. 
2142
2143People of all classes had begun to realise how big a price they were having to pay for Plassey. With more people dependent on farming, land was in short supply. Also, the British had raised taxes and demanded cash payments. And, as forests were taken over, the tribals began to lose their rights. The British policy of usurping seats of power had upset rulers too. The result of all this was the war of 1857. 
2144
2145One morning in1857on the eleventh day of May Rebel soldiers of the East India CompanySet out from Meerut for DelhiDawn was breaking as they reachedthe banks of the YamunaSome citizens of Delhi were awake, some lost in sleepthat fateful morningSome were asleepBut guards at the Red Fort espied the rebelsand barred them from enteringThough barred from entering the Red Fortthe rebels were not deterredSome citizens of Delhi joined hands with themAnd from the rearof the fort they found a way at lastAt last they found a wayThey desired an audience with Bahadur Shahto urge him to lead their causeAlthough he lived on the mercy of the BritishThe rebels proclaimed him EmperorThe rebels seized all city gatesDelhi GateKashmiri GateThe gunpowder magazineGovernment offices were seized and lootedand vengeance wreaked upon the BritishThey killed all who came in their wayAt Kashmiri Gate, in St. James' Church,the memory of some names survives to this daySo with the cry of freedom exploded the ferment of '57And continued to gather strengthIt needed just a few sparksfor the fire to spread through every laneThose asleep were jolted awakeThe clash of swords and din of cannon filled the air'Hindu' or 'Muslim' there was noneAll were one in this struggleand a new community was bornThe voices of farmers and artisansalso spoke in unisonBut yet they were disorganisedNo leader came to the foreNawabs and rajas realisedthat foreign means were superiorSoon a new jewel adorned Victoria's crownNone could oppose her mightBut the conflagration spreadand others continues the fightThere came many Mangal Pandeys and Laxmibais
2146
214713. There is a story of chappatis that were cooked and went from village to village as a signal that it is time to revolt. All these are legends. We know within a month that the revolt spread. These rebels were very bold and brave, they burnt down the courts and treasuries of the British. They broke open jails and released prisoners. The British side of the story is well documented and what the Indians did is not very well known. The revolt was not across the country. In both northern and eastern side Punjab and Bengal and southern side people were not involved. It was largely the Hindi speaking areas that took part in this. 
2148
2149What planning went into the war of '57 and how it was organised, we do not know. There are legends like the one about chapatis being sent as signals. 
2150
2151Within a month, the revolt spread through North India. Everywhere, the rebels burned down courts, looted treasuries, freed prisoners. The rebellion was at its peak in Lucknow. Here, at the British Residency, many Britishers took refuge. Many hid in this basement, mostly women and children. The rebels beseiged the area for months. They had the support of the people of Lucknow - possibly because a year earlier the British had desposed Nawab Wajid Ali Shah and usurped Awadh. 
2152
2153The revolt was not countrywide. Nothing much happened in Punjab and Bengal. South India was uninvolved. Significantly, people from every caste and community took part - princes, soldiers, craftsmen. Unfortunately, this first was of Independence did not throw up any capable leader. Everywhere, the rebels sought leadership from the nawabs and landlords. Sunk in decadence, they offered outdated ideas. 
2154
2155And yet, by this time a new consciousness had begun to grow. It was from this that the new leadership was to emerge. This consciousness came with the new education. 
2156
2157Maitreyi: At first there was much debate on whether to stress western science and literature or encourage traditional learning. The decision favoured modern education. And should the medium of instruction be English or the Indian languages? It was finally decided that it should be English. A few chosen centres of higher learning were set up in the hope that, through their students, education would percolate down to the general populace. Nissim: But the govt probably cared little for the mass education. It simply needed a clerk or babu class for its expanding administration. It was expensive to get this workforce from England. Also, it was hoped that Indians, thus, would become loyal and future revolt could be avoided. Maitreyi: As Macaulay said, such people would form a bridge between the govt and its many subjects. Despite their “Indian blood” they would be “British in intellect”. Nissim: But did this plan succeed totally? After all, the medium of education was English - the language in which Paine and Jefferson hailed freedom, and in which Newton and Darwin wrote. Indians, too, began printing papers and pamphlets to speak of democracy, equality and nationalism, and to defy colonialism. 
2158
215914. Whatever 1857 was, a new kind of consciousness was rising and a new kind of leadership emerged that put a lot more and they put a lot of emphasis on education, including people like Rajaramohan Roy
2160
216115. Reformers: What marked all these reformers in the 19th century was interest in rationalism, rational thinking and humanism and going beyond caste and traditional barriers. They identified orthodoxy as the thing that held Indians back. They were suspicious of feudal rulers though they made strategic alliances with them. There were people like Jotiba Phule in Maharashtra for women’s liberation and education. Vireshalingam in Andhra Pradesh, Kumarashan in Kerala, and so on. And they were very influenced by French revolution, American war of independence. It was becoming apparent to them that science and technology could form the basis for human prosperity and well being. 
2162
2163Radhanagar, Hooghly Dist. , West Bengal
2164
2165In this village of Radhanagar, near Calcutta, Ram Mohan Roy was born in 1772. Bengal was famine-stricken during his childhood. Lakhs died, but the British still demanded taxes. 
2166
2167The farmer's discontent grew. There were uprisings against the British and the landlords. These rebellions were brutally put downbut names like Bhawani Pathak and Raghunath were not forgotten. During all this, Ram Mohan was educated. He read Sanskrit texts as well as works in Persian and Arabic. 
2168
2169Being from a rich landlord family he had the opportunity to study. He must have been an unusual student. He studied the Hindu, Muslim and Christian texts and learned French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and other languages. Thus he absorbed new Western ideas along with ancient thought. 
2170
2171Residence of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Kolkata, West Bengal
2172
2173On growing up, he came to live in Calcutta. He started many newspapers. Educated people joined him, to help foster awareness. Their demands were that taxes be reduced, the East India Company's monopoly on trade be ended, the heavy taxes on Indian goods be abolished, Indians be given equal rights to justice and racial discrimination cease, so as to give Indians equal access to education and work. 
2174
2175He firmly believed that a modern India had to be based on science and reason. And so, science education was necessary. He helped start many schools, colleges and libraries. Here, too in his Calcutta house - now a police office – he started a school. He stressed useful science such as mathematics, chemistry, astronomy and anatomy. Ram Mohan Roy was in the vanguard of those who tried to introduce western ideas here. This was not to imitate the west, but to realise a new India where there would be no backwardness or discrimination, men and women would be equal. 
2176
217716. Railways: The coming of the railways is a paradox. We can see the craft centers are dying and old cities are collapsing. The railway tracks are being laid over the country, hinterlands to the ports especially. But the railways did not develop the interior of the country, nor did they did not bring new opportunity. They were drainage points, for trees, logs of woods, bales of cotton, to be taken to the ports to be taken to Europe. So Calcutta, Madras, Bombay are all developed and that’s where the railway trains go to reach raw materials to Europe. The cantonments also had to be linked up because after 1857 the British got serious about their security. 
2178
2179For making the railways everything came from the abroad. Those who dealt in theory were apart from those working with their hands once again. Building of railway network did not develop science and technology in India. 
2180
218117. At this point in time, to run the railway network, irrigation canals, bridges, telegraph, roads etc. to maintain and expand these systems the British required some Indians with education and training. Some engineering colleges were opened for Indians that focused on civil engineering. These were started in Rourkee, Pune, madras, and the Bengal Engineering College, all begun by Public Works Department (PWD). These colleges would give licenses, not degrees. Contrary to colonial expectations, the people who got training in engineering colleges did not merely fulfill a purpose for the government. They developed a deep interest in science, and though their education was limited they helped disseminate it, even set up science popularization clubs and societies. The British thought that they would avoid this by giving only licenses to practice as engineers and not degrees, but the students did something with the knowledge they got anyway. 
2182
2183Rationalism and humanism. These aspects were stressed by many social reformers besides Ram Mohan Roy - Jyotiba Phule in Maharashtra, Vireshalingam in Andhra, Kumaranashan in Kerala. Ideas of equality had played a major role in the French and American Revolutions. And it was now becoming apparent in Europe how science and technology could form the basis of human progress. 
2184
2185National Rail Museum, New Delhi
2186
2187Barely 30 years after the first train ran in Britain, India's first train ran between Bombay and Thane in 1853. Within 7 years, over 1300 kilometres of tracks had been laid. 
2188
2189By 1900 we had 25,000 km of tracks. By 1910, Indian railways formed the fourth largest network in the world. 
2190
2191Amrita: It seems so strange that at the same time that old craft centres were dying and the country was in great difficulties, rail tracks were being rapidly laid - suggesting great progress. Ranjan: That's just it! The railways, did not develop the country's interior. They were laid to serve the interests of the rulers. Long trunk lines linked remote interiors only to the major ports so that our raw materials could go out and finished British goods come in. And, yes, the cantonments were linked up for the movement of their troops. 
2192
2193Amrita: So railways were yet another technology used for empire building. Isn't that so?Ranjan: Well, track-laying did employ thousands. Also, as irrigation and road building works expanded, trained Indians were increasingly needed. The British started civil engg and survey courses. All this was for their own gain but for India it was the start of technical education. Amrita: That may be so, but mechanical engineering was taught. Nor were we allowed to build our own engines. Listen to this – between 1865 and 1941, some 12,000 engines were imported while only 700 were built here. These manufacturers' plates are an indication. Why weren't locomotive workshops set up? Ranjan: In fact, this was the policy the followed in all industries. All machinery came from abroad. Nothing was made here. It's the same, age-old problem - for centuries, those who dealt in theory remained apart from those working with their hands. 
2194
2195We paid the price for this separation. Only a meeting of the two could have created an Industrial Revolution. This happened, but elsewhere. 
2196
2197When Indians asked for modern science, the British were hardly ready to make us a gift of their knowledge! We sound like we're discussing today's news! Isn't this as important as any news report?
2198
2199Besides railways, British rule also needed the telegraph, canals, roads, bridges etc. For these to function, Indians had to be given some education and training. Engineering colleges, which stressed only civil engineering, were started. 
2200
2201Roorkee in 1848, Pune in '54, Madras in '55 and in '56 the Bengal Engineering College, begun by the Public Works Dept. However, these colleges awarded licences, rather than degrees in such matters, official policy is often one thing - the outcome quite another. Many British employees of the East India Co had a personal interest in science. They emphasised modern education, and helped disseminate science. 
2202
220318. At the time of making BKC not much was done on science in colonial period but since then in the last two decades a lot of work has been done. New discoveries and stories have surfaced. For instance, Dr. Mahendra Lal Sircar who went to Calcutta Medical College said that we want a public institution of science – where there will be lectures on science subjects, illustrative experiments performed by the lecturers and the audience should be invited and taught to perform experiments themselves. We wish that this institution be entirely under native management and control. From these big and rebellious thoughts, he and his friends set up the Indian association for the Cultivation of Science. He got support and patronage from big landlords, the only ones remaining with independent wealth. 
2204
2205In the early 1800s, the government had not discouraged Western education. But after '57, this attitude changed. It was explicitly declared that Indians were, as yet, incapable of absorbing modern science and ideas. Of course there was a reason for this view -a new, educated class emerging, and some people were using their newly acquired knowledge to question the policies of the British government. 
2206
2207I was thinking about those students who went to places like Roorkee and Grant Medical College. How many of them saw more in science than a job? Did they think of its role in shaping India's future? How many had a dream that perhaps one day modern technology could help free us from poverty? How many thought of taking science to the people? I thought of all this when I was in Calcutta recently. For I learnt about a person who gave serious thought to these problems - Mahendralal Sircar, who went to Calcutta Medical College. He really began his work in 1869. In the Calcutta Journal of Medicine he wrote: “We want an institution which shall be for the instruction of the masses, where lectures on scientific subjects will be systematically delivered. Not only should illustrative experiments be performed by the lecturers, but the audience should be invited and taught to perform them themselves. And we wish that the Institution be entirely under native management and control”
2208
220919. Indian National Congress was formed in 1885 in Bombay and the ideals of the INC were similar to those of Dr. Mahendra Lal and his friends in the the Indian association for the Cultivation of Science. They both promoted nationalism, democracy and universal education. 
2210
2211The People’s Science Movement in India comes from Marxist ideology, and consequently the need for revolution and changing the social order. The Indian association for the Cultivation of Science is not so radical. They were just talking about realizing your potential as a nation, becoming self reliant, cutting yourself from the British economy, for reasons of social justice and especially the poor. 
2212
2213These are no longer independent societies; the Indian association for the Cultivation of Science is now a government body, a research and grants-making institute. 
2214
2215Nissim: Who, however, could finance such an institution? Rajas, landlords, big merchants. But when Sircar went to them with his project for the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, he got more assurances than money. The rich must barely have comprehended his aims. Education for the masses? Why? Of what use are experiments? Why learn to them oneself? Mahendralal was talking of self-reliance and of a scientific culture. His aim was that students here have the opportunity to do research, science be used for the good of society, applications useful for production be found. 
2216
2217Amrita: The centre was set up at last -smaller than planned but independent. Maitreyi: His faith in self-reliance was not unique. By the end of the century, political awareness was sweeping the country and a new spirit of nationalism emerging. In 1885, the Indian National Congress was born. The ideals of the Congress matched Mahendralal's. Both upheld nationalism and democracy. Amrita: Congress members like SN Banerjee were with him. Maitreyi: Yes. And later, the bond between scientists and freedom fighters grew even stronger. Nissim: A new generation of scientists came forward. Several had worked at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science Prafulla Chandra Ray, Jagdish Chandra Bose, Ashutosh Mukherjee, and later, CV Raman and Meghnad Saha. 
2218----------------------------------------
2219Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 11: The Freedom Struggle & the Scientific Community (Chandita Mukherjee) – Pad. ma
2220
2221https://pad.ma/CFS/player
2222https://pad.ma/CFS/player
2223Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 11: The Freedom Struggle & the Scientific Community
2224
2225Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:51:10; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 289. 173; Saturation: 0. 057; Lightness: 0. 370; Volume: 0. 244; Cuts per Minute: 7. 913; Words per Minute: 65. 393;
2226
2227Summary: This episode captures the effects of 20th century science and technology. We examine the achievements of JC Bose, Meghnad Saha, PC Ray and Raman, their involvement in the national movement and the importance of science and technology in building an independent India. 
2228
2229History of science and technology in India, freedom struggle, Meghnad Saha, CV Raman 
2230
2231https://pad.ma/CFS/96p. jpg
2232
2233https://pad.ma/CFS/96p. jpg
2234
2235Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 11: The Freedom Struggle & the Scientific Community
2236https://pad.ma/CFS
2237
2238https://pad.ma/CFS/256p. jpg
2239Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:51:10; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 289. 173; Saturation: 0. 057; Lightness: 0. 370; Volume: 0. 244; Cuts per Minute: 7. 913; Words per Minute: 65. 393;
2240
2241Summary: This episode captures the effects of 20th century science and technology. We examine the achievements of JC Bose, Meghnad Saha, PC Ray and Raman, their involvement in the national movement and the importance of science and technology in building an independent India. 
2242
2243Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 11: The Freedom Struggle & the Scientific Community
2244
2245Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit Duration: 00:51:10; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 289. 173; Saturation: 0. 057; Lightness: 0. 370; Volume: 0. 244; Cuts per Minute: 7. 913; Words per Minute: 65. 393 
2246
2247Summary: This episode captures the effects of 20th century science and technology. We examine the achievements of JC Bose, Meghnad Saha, PC Ray and Raman, their involvement in the national movement and the importance of science and technology in building an independent India. 
2248
2249Bharat ki Chhap:EPISODE 11
2250
2251The Freedom Struggle and the Scientific Community (1900 - 1947)
2252
2253Amrita: India's first telephone exchange opened. In Calcutta in 1881, with only 50 lines. Ranjan: And Calcutta had the first electric company, in 1899. Raghu: Electric trams came a year laterShehnaaz: 1892: The first car 1904: A race with 60 cars!Amrita: 1903: The Wright brothers flew the first aeroplane. By 1920, we had regular Bombay-Karachi flights. Raghu: Cinema came in 1896. In 1913, Dadasaheb Phalke made the first feature film - Raja Harishchandra. 
2254
2255Ranjan: 1901: Marconi transmits signals across the Atlantic. Shehnaaz: 1906: the first radio programme. Amrita: 1928: the first TV programme. Ranjan: 1902: Rutherford discovers the atomic structure. Raghu: 1930: The atom is split and its nucleus studied. Amrita: Then we made computers, supercomputers followed. Ranjan: We landed on the moon Raghu: Made our own satellitesShehnaaz: But more than all those, this century gave us an understanding of freedom, democracy and peace. 
2256
22571. A song! A trading of trivia facts, where people are exclaiming on arrival of different technologies in India and comparing that with what was happening in the rest of the world. For example, a car race with 60 cars happened in Karachi and Wright Brothers flew their first airplane. Cinema comes internationally – the Lumiere brothers show their invention in 1896. By 1913 we have feature films made in India by entirely Indian cast and crew. The song offers no analysis for the origins or directions of technologies. 
2258
2259The song of the 20th century is set in a printing press where various headlines are being printed out. The characters are dancing around and singing about various headlines of the 20th century. 
2260
2261The twentieth centuryA time that shook the worldAn age of science and changeWhen dreams began to come trueThe Russian Revolution made us feelWe could be masters of our destinyIn India our hopes surgedLong live the revolution!A bullet from a guntriggered a war, upturned the worldPeople had the radio for newsThe end of war brought hopes for lasting peaceBut there was yet another warA kind of war never seen beforeAgain the sky was a battlefieldHiroshima, a name etched foreverScience can be used to destroyBut we hoped to use it for progressWe had many dreams when we won freedomBut we speak of what happened before that
2262
2263Mumbai
2264
2265History of Mumbai
2266
2267Mumbai
2268
22692. The sequence on Bombay/Mumbai is about the history of the city under colonial rule. Most cities in colonized India were new kinds of assimilations of people - they had people of different castes, regions and religions settling there and away from their villages where the social order was the same as had been for many centuries. In cities they came across new centers, new identities were possible. There were associations of traders from different communities, of working men, trade unions etc. There were also schools and colleges, even cinemas – new places where people of all sorts would come together and have to be together. 
2270
2271The British had a sea fort to store goods for export. Soon, a city came up around the fort. 
2272
2273Bombay. The British developed its deep harbour for commerce. Later, steamships would require big dockyards. And with the Suez Canal, Bombay became very important. 
2274
2275It was now the nearest Indian port from England. Many docks were built on Bombay's eastern coastline and it became a major trade centre. 
2276
2277Many other towns developed similarly -Calcutta, Madras. 
2278
2279These cities attracted many people. 
2280
2281People with varied skills. 
2282
2283Many kinds of craftsmen. 
2284
2285Traders and money lenders too. The city provided many avenues for earning. 
2286
2287By the 1850s, the British exported readymade goods and then machines to India. Thus the age of industry began here. 
2288
2289Traders working as agents invested in factories. 
2290
2291Many mills came up in Bombay, mostly textile mills. 
2292
2293Contrary to rural practice, people of different castes, religions, regions settled down together. 
2294
2295They forged a new identity - the working class. 
2296
2297Their unity led to a new type of organisation - trade unions. They fought not only for their economic demands, but for Independence as well - as in the workers' strike of 1908 demanding Tilak's release. 
2298
22993. People began working together towards independence. 1857 was not lost on anybody and it was an aborted attempt. The railways and telegraph linked up the country – these means of communication were also useful to others and not just the administration. And because it was all linked up if there was a fall in prices of cotton, if there was a drought or flood it effected everybody. India became unified because of that common administration. 
2300
2301With education and writing, there grew subversive novels, poems, plays which were read by everybody and there were several instances of book and performance banning. The new intellectual class that emerged from the schools and colleges and discussion centers was quite aware of what was happening in the world and they knew that in other countries there were protests against British rule. 
2302
2303In 1885 you have the formation of the Indian National Congress and many other groups like the communists, anarchists, the people who believed in terrorism and many other ideologies, all working for the end of colonial rule. 
2304
2305By the mid-19th century, these cities emerged as centre of trade and power. 
2306
2307The railways and the telegraph linked the country. 
2308
2309Uniform administration led to economic centralisation. Flood or drought in any part began to affect all parts of the country. We began to perceive ourselves as one nation. 
2310
2311The spread of education in cities also brought people closer. 
2312
2313Many people began to acquire higher education. 
2314
2315A new intellectual class emerged that was aware of world affairs. They realised their colonial status, and protested against British rule, spread the spirit of nationalism. Like-minded people came together everywhere. 
2316
2317In Bombay, during December 1885, they formed the Indian National Congress. 
2318
2319Its importance grew at the turn of the century. 
2320
2321These new ideas originated in the cities. 
2322
2323Nissim: The 20th century saw especially rapid changes in all parts of the world - in science, political thought, economy and society. How did it affect India? Maitreyi: The existing feudal tradition was replaced by a new urban culture - as in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. New classes emerged – millowners, workers, a middle class and an intelligentsia. Though a product of the British economic system, these classes led the fight for independence. Nissim: They wanted the growth of the domestic economy. This was reflected in the Swadeshi movement. India needed industries based on Indian capital. Maitreyi: Scientists and technicians were needed - but such education was hard to get. The control of science was a step towards freedom. No wonder scientists joined the freedom struggle. Nissim: Technological innovations and science studies were emphasised. The nerve centre was the capital of British India – Calcutta. 
2324
2325Bose Institute, Kolkata
2326
23274. J. C. Bose was a polymath. He was not just a nationalist and great teacher interested in science education. He also had very important scientific discoveries to his credit. 
2328
2329He understood microwaves or the potential of microwaves fairly early, and he made the first wireless transmitter. But Marconi got all the credit and patent, and the wealth and fame. J. C. Bose did a public demonstration in 1895 in Calcutta at the town hall, in front of the governor. But he wasn’t given that recognition nor was he interested in turning it into a commercial product; he simply wanted to send a message from one place to other by using wireless transmission using the waves that are found in nature.  All this work was of course working on the principle of semi conductors, which were discovered and theorized about 50 years later. Semi conductors are the basis of modern electronics but all that was not appreciated at that time. 
2330
2331Bose is also known for his work/research on the nervous system of plants, and for this he was laughed at by all the important people of the time, even Indians and even in the late 1987 when we made this show. 
2332
2333This was a superficial reading and misinterpretation of his work. Bose wanted to investigate if plants have nervous systems and how do they understand and communicate to one another, do they have memory, and he was doing experiments to investigate this. Western science at the time was very reductionist at the time, and if application of your findings didn’t translate into economic gain then you could only be Einstein and you could then say whatever you liked. But a guy working in India – his original thinking and investigations didn’t really cut much ice and were not received they way they should have been. 
2334
2335Now the work with plant nervous systems is being used to develop sophisticated communication mechanisms, which in fact do rely on this kind of transmission. 
2336
2337Ranjan and Raghu visited the Bose Institute, established in 1917 by Jagdish Chandra Bose. 
2338
2339Dibakar Sen showed them instruments made by Bose. 
2340
2341Sen: Made over 100 years ago, this set has a transmitter and a receiver. When a microwave is generated, there is a deflection in the galvanometer. Ranjan: This wireless set was demonstrated in 1895 by Bose at Calcutta's Town Hall, two years before Marconi. Bose later showed it at the Royal Society of London. He was the first widely recognised Indian scientist. The most vital part of this instrument is the receiver or coherer, made by Bose. He realised that there are two types of receivers. 'P' or positive type, in which the current increases,and 'N' or negative, in which the current decreases. It was not known then that these worked on the semi-conductor principle, discovered 50 years later. Today, it is the basis of modern electronics. 
2342
2343Raghu: JC Bose is best known for his experiments on plants. He was perhaps the first bio-physicist. His major work, though, was in physics, his subject at the University of London. He worked on the properties of electromagnetic waves, and generated wavelengths of 1cm to 5mm - a part of the microwave spectrum today. Ranjan: At the same time, he began to study plants. Later, he worked on plant responses to stimuli - the effect of electric current on plants, and their nervous systems. To record plant responses, he devised instruments here in his lab, with local craftsmen. Other scientists also had to rely on instruments they made themselves. 
2344
23455. Bose was the kind of scientist who made all his own instruments. Bose worked with people who made umbrellas, sitar strings, and crafts people who helped build his instruments that had fine understanding of material and mechanisms. 
2346
2347Person who came a little later was Meghnad Saha who was a physicist who also worked on building his own experimental equipment and went to the kabadi bazaars and searched for stuff. It was very difficult at that time, for people to get scientific education and to get access to books and journals, and over and above that to attempt original research by building your own equipment, it was very ambitious. It shows how these men were freethinking and very independent. 
2348
2349Meghand Saha, the nuclear physicist, did the same. In the Palit lab, India's first cyclotron was built. A year after the invention of the electron microscope, Saha and his students made one here. 
2350
2351They searched even the World War II scrap markets for the necessary materials. It was difficult, then, to get a science education, let alone attempt original research. 
2352
23536. Another person highlighted in this episode is Praful Chandra Ray in the field of science and chemistry. He found even though he had students, they would end up doing clerical jobs in factories and railways. So he started a new company the Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works and it was an industry where workers and researchers shared profits. Ray became famous for making an industrial chemical called mercurous nitrate which had various applications and that earned them the funds to keep the company going and to keep doing their research. 
2354
2355Then he also started something called Calcutta Soapworks, Bengal Enamel, Bengal Pottery, and all these units today are in some kind of decrepit condition and they barely run. Some may have been closed off or sold off because they were taken over by the government. 
2356
2357All these institutions were founded with this kind of thinking of having self-reliant Indian technology. 
2358
2359And research without applications seemed useless. The scientist PC Ray realised that his chemistry graduates often got stuck in clerical jobs. So PC Ray and his students set up the Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical works. 
2360
2361Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd. , Kolkata
2362
2363It was an industry with a difference - the profits were shared by the workers and researchers. Ray became famous for discovering the process of making mercurous nitrite. He aimed to use science for India's industrial growth. 
2364
2365This drug and chemical plant was followed by Calcutta Soap Works, Bengal Enamels, Bengal Potteries. These units employed Indian scientists and technicians, and Indian capital. 
2366
2367In his last years, PC Ray went back to teaching and active social work. 
2368
2369In 1907, a 19 year old came to Calcutta from Madras One day, from his tram, he saw a signboard. That very evening, he met the secretary, Amritlal Sircar, and asked for research facilities. Sircar readily gave him the keys to the lab. This CV Raman began his scientific career. 
2370
2371Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata
2372
2373Birla Industrial & Technological Museum, Kolkata
2374
2375Raman was born on 7 November, 1888. The Birla Industrial and Technological Museum was the venue for his centenary celebrations. Raman, a brilliant student, was a matriculate at 11. At 18, he published his first scientific paper. Though an accountant, his real interest was science. In his spare time he used to work at the IACS laboratory, conducing many important experiments. 
2376
2377Deeply interested in acoustics, he studied the sounds of musical instruments. Western drums have one piece of leather stretched cross the top. So each drum has only one type of sound. Indian drums are designed differently. They produce multiple tones. Raman inferred that the table produces more tones because of the leather rings fixed in it skin and this black ring or kali syahi in the centre. 
2378
2379All scientists are inquisitive. Raman was curious about the smallest detail. During his journey to Europe, he was fascinated by the sea. Why does the sea seem blue? Till then it was thought the sea reflected the sky. And the sky was blue because of the way light collided with dust particles. Unconvinced, Raman conducted experiments to prove that just as light scatters in air, it also collides with water molecules and scatters. His experiments on light scattering in liquids led to discovery of the 'Raman effect'. 
2380
2381When monochromatic rays pass through a clear liquid, the photons will either pass between the molecules or collide with them. Collision causes an exchange of energy. Whether the energy is given or taken depends on the molecular structure of the liquid. Loss of energy results in a longer wavelength. If the ray gains energy, its wavelength is shorter. These changes in energy affect the colour of the ray. Raman analysed the changes in color through a spectrometer. Molecular structures of different compounds could be  determined through the Raman effect, as the nature and degree of change in colour indicated the molecular structure. 
2382
2383This discovery in physics helped solve many problems in chemistry. And, in 1930, Raman was awarded the Nobel prize. 
2384
2385Raghu: That there is an ultimate truth to be discovered - this belief was the basis of Newtonian science. Maitreyi: By the 1890s it appeared as if all the fundamental work in science was achieved. But new concepts emerged in the next 50 years and altered many old principles. The lesson: there is no ultimate truth in science. Raghu: Einstein's equation is well-known. Mass and energy, considered as separate, were proved interchangeable – as in nuclear energy. Waves and particles, also considered separate, came to be seen as dual aspects of the same reality. This is the basis of 20th century science. X-rays, semi-conductors, transistors, nuclear plants - all these resulted from the new science. 
2386
2387Nissim: Scientists who came after Bose and Ray studied new developments. The theory of relativity was first translated from German into English in Calcutta by SN Bose. Bose, in collaboration with Einstein, explained the behaviour of sub-atomic particles through the Bose-Einstein statistics. Such particles were termed bosons. Raghu: Fundamental research was possible then without costly instruments or institutional support. 
2388
2389Udaipur Solar Observatory, Udaipur
2390
2391Such research was done in astronomy too. Scientists studying orbits and planetary positions turned to a basic question: What are stars made of? This quest led to astrophysics. Meghnad Saha became a major contributor. At the solar observatory in Udaipur I met Dr. Arvind Bhatnagar. 
2392
2393We know the concept of colour temperature - as iron is heated, it turns red, orange and then white. This concept helped to classify stars. 
2394
2395Dr. Bhatnagar: Each element has unique properties. A study of the sun's spectrum reveals its temperature and the elements it is made of. These lines indicate sodium. Amrita: The spectral analysis of light emitted by stars helped detect the presence of many elements. The sun had heavy metals like sodium and calcium, and very little hydrogen. But Sirius had more hydrogen. Does the composition of various stars differ? Meghnad Saha's articles in 1920-21 told us that different spectral lines indicated varying degrees of pressure and temperature. 
2396
2397If an electron is excited through extra energy, it jumps its orbit and leaves the atom - a process called ionisation. Ionisation is the cause of specific spectral lines. The surfaces of the sun and Sirius have similar elements, but different spectral lines, as the surface temperature of Sirius is 10,000K, twice that of the sun. At this temperature, sodium and calcium are already ionised. Further ionisation is impossible. Thus, the sun's spectrum has heavy metal lines, not seen in the Sirius spectrum. Saha's temperature-pressure equation enabled us to study the atmosphere of distant stars. 
2398
2399Dr. Bhatnagar: It would take 2000 billion hydrogen-bombs to release energy equal to that of this solar flare which can encompass 20 planets the size of Earth. Here, magnetic energy is being converted into heat. A complete understanding of this phenomenon could help solve the energy crisis
2400
24017. Meghnad Saha’s journal is called Science and Culture, which is quite significant because he is talking about science being an influence in society, and this is also his ambition to make science an important cultural and social influence. 
2402
2403In this episode we talk about the contradiction between two dominant models of development at this point of India’s history, and the apparent contradiction between them. One model wants massive industrialization in India after independence, and those who wanted to have small scale, low impact on environment, highly employment generating craft-based industries. The latter ideals of a village republic, where everything is more or less found within a short distance, were not fashionable in the 1950s and the Planning Commission went ahead with the Soviet model of development. People like Saha were active in the Planning Commission. The previous generation of scientists, like Saha’s teacher P. C. Ray was very much taken up with indigenous ideas, including the then national obsession with charkha and khadi. He was keen on small scale hand made crafts industry rather than industrial manufacturing. But Saha was of the next generation of scientists that wanted to build dams and tame the flow of rivers which would flood villages, to protect them. 
2404
2405In BKC we don’t deal with this contradiction in much depth because of the way the series is structured – we were working in 5 to 7 min sequences in which everything had to be said and one had to move on and not return to topics. We tried to represent different points in this debate equally. 
2406
2407Meghnad Saha appears unique in his awareness of contemporary problems. He was one of the architects of the country's future. When Raghu and I visited Calcutta's Saha Institute, we met the Chatterjees, Saha's biographers. Shantimoy also edits Saha's magazine Science and Culture. 
2408
2409Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata
2410
2411Presidency College, Kolkata
2412
2413Modern science came late to our country. Scientists like PC Ray, JC Bose and Saha were perhaps romantics. They created an atmosphere of research. Saha had a broad vision. He felt the freedom struggle had to complemented by organised scientific progress. 
2414
2415While documents help us understand the past, meeting people from that period gives us an insight. Going through this journal started by Saha, I can sense the ambience of his times. Perhaps because scholars here were his students and his journal's office is still on the same campus. 
2416
2417Raghu: The Planning Commission envisaged industrialisation to combat poverty and unemployment, for national security and economic prosperity. Santimay: Saha could never accept the philosophy of charkha although his guru, PC Ray was totally converted it. He believed that large scale industrialisation is extremely important to quickly develop the resources of the country and bring the result to the people of India. Enakshi: His concept of industrial growth stressed river planning. He came from a Bengal village which was flood-prone. Later he went abroad - he saw the Tennessee Valley Project in America. He wanted to emulate it here, to effectively utilise our river water resources. Saha's writings reflect this desire. 
2418
2419Addressing the Bengal Youth Congress, he said: “Our religious founders erected walls of superstition and ritual to dominate the lower castes. Instead, foreigners dominated us for years. It will be a mistake to idealise simple living. We must master, not avoid, western machines. I do not negate sacrifice, but action is important. Sacrifice is often incompetence in disguise”
2420
24218. Saha’s quote indicates what his frame of mind was and what he was battling with, and that is why it is included in the series. Today if I put a quote like this then I would have to explicate about this outlook, and I wouldn’t agree with this fake contrast between simple living and Western machinery, or with the cultural thinking that creates this contradiction. Now with the environmental global crisis, our concerns have moved on. 
2422
2423All of the scientists were from landed communities, Saha was more middle class than the others but most were privileged. This might explain why they devoted their lives to planned development, if they had to be railway clerks or were from other backgrounds, then such thinking would not have been possible. 
2424
2425We try to show is how these personalities linked up with each othr through the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science. Bose and Ray taught at Presidency college, Saha was their student. Sircar’s colleague Ashutosh Mukherjee started the college of science. So they were all close to one another, either contemporaries or students and teachers of one another. 
2426
2427Raghu: His anxieties can be understood in context. Enakshi: Yes, he had many dreams about independence, about planning, but now things were taking time. He had much to say, but no real forum. In 1952, he contested the parliamentary elections, and won a seat from Calcutta. Raghu: Didn't he play a major role in setting up the National Planning Committee? The National Planning Committee under the chairmanship of Pandit Nehru collected almost every important scientist from all over India. Saha had an important role in this. 
2428
2429Raghu: These scientists were associated with the IACS. Both Bose and Ray taught at the Presidency College. Saha was their student. ML Sircar's colleague - Ashutosh Mukherjee – started the College of Science, the first post-graduate science college in India. There were many scientists, in different fields, yet they shared a vision. Ranjan: Those were the times of the Independence struggle. Science, too, became a weapon. They realised that a cause of our colonisation was our backwardness. We had to keep up with scientific advances abroad, develop our science, make our own instruments, become self-reliant. Raghu: Many scientists delivered lectures here. Setting up research institutes, publishing journals and children's magazines, public demonstrations of their work - for them, all this was a part of science. Ranjan: This was truly the age of science. Ramanujam did fundamental work in mathematics. Visvervaraya worked in many river-dam projects and started an iron factory in Mysore. Attempts to use foreign technologies began during this period. The links between science and industry became stronger. 
2430
2431Presidency College, Kolkata
2432
2433Nissim: By 1930, co-operation with the British seemed futile. The demand for total independence grew. After World War I the world faced an economic crisis. Russia coped because of its planned economy, which impressed our leaders, Nehru in particular. Shehnaaz: In 1938, The National Congress Planning Committee was formed. Industrialists, scientists and leaders came together to discuss various issue. 29 sub-committees were asked to submit reports. These reports reveal their concerns. There were differences too, on issues like family planning, public vs private sector, priority for agriculture or industry - heavy industry or cottage industry?
2434
2435Maitreyi: Serious thought was given to industrialisation - the development of various industries, technologies, governmental support, new educational institutions. Shehnaaz: Each report stressed the need to adopt the latest technology and research. They held that science does not develop in a vacuum; it needs a supportive social base. It was historic that such issues were discussed in detail. These reports influenced independent India's policies. 
2436
24379. Today we think of coal as being an environmental menace because of the damage of mining coal to the earth, and the carbon and other byproducts that burning coal throws into the atmosphere. But at that time coal was very important and therefore we have made a sequence about the whole effort for improving the quality of coal, beneficiation of coal through washing. 
2438
2439This scene about coal is shot in Dhanbad, which is most environmentally dismal place in the world – it is smoky and there is hardly any oxygen in the air, because all the underground veins of coal that are burning constantly and spewing smoke into the environment. The place is over run by mafia lords. In this scene we show that natural resources were being depleted recklessly and carelessly by colonial authorities. The best veins of coal which would be fuel efficient were allotted to the British companies and railways, and the rest of the lowest grade coal (20%) was allotted to Indian contractors. The highest-grade coal went at cheapest price to the railways because they were the biggest consumers, and they set the pricing. 
2440
2441To maximize profit more and more coal kept on being extracted. The colonial authorities ignored safety precautions, built tunnels and chambers that collapsed. Workers died in those collapses, or rivers got flooded and submerged all the coal veins. Underground fires started and those are still burning. Some of these fires are more than a 100 years old and raging through these underground veins of coal. From time to time the land above just collapses, but it doesn’t collapse so fully as to kill the fire. The fire just keeps on spreading. 
2442
2443Coal is a typical example of an industry of the time. Coal was the main source of energy. Amrita met many experts to find out the story of coal. 
2444
2445In Bihar, near Dhanbad, are vast coal reserves. Bharat Coking Coal Ltd has many mines here that supply coa to the metal industry. 
2446
2447Bharat Coking Coal Limited, Dhanbad, Jharkhand
2448
2449Amrita: I met KK Malhotra, an environmental engineer. Malhotra: We call this open-cast mining. Earlier, we had only underground mines. Amrita: Do they still exist? Malhotra: Yes, there are some old mines. Amrita: They produced little good quality coal. Malhotra: Much of their output could not be marketed. We had no washeries then. Only ready-to-use coal was extracted. Amrita: Coal for the steel and metal industries must be washed to remove non-combustible substances. 
2450
2451In 1925, a British government report said that the coal here was too impure even for washing. So for years, coal that could have been used for industry served only as railway-engine fuel. 
2452
2453Indian coal washeries finally came up after 1950, like this one at Lodhna. Today, this coal is used in metal industries. 
2454
2455During the freedom struggle, some coal technologists tried to stop the wastage of coal. Better coal-washing techniques were demanded. 
2456
2457The government took no interest, nor did the mine-owners. Surveys were conducted by the British and these lands leased out. Low grade coal mines were allotted to Indians, while 80% of the high-grade mines leased to British companies. 
2458
2459Mines were also leased out to the Railways, the biggest consumers of coal. So they made all decisions about price and quality. 
2460
2461They used high grade coal at the cheapest price! Thus the best quality coal went cheap. 
2462
2463To maximise profits, more and more coal extracted, ignoring future needs as well as safety. The Jharia coal field has many old mines that collapsed, or were submerged. 
2464
2465Malhotra: The mining companies worked unscientifically. Often, mines caved in and so did the buildings above. Fired would start, and spread rapidly. Amrita: Many old fires still raging and have spread over several kilometres. 
2466
2467Amrita: I've read that from 1931-45, the Jharia coal field lost about 300 million tonnes of coal - about 75% was high grade. Malhotra: The first fire here started in 1916. Much of the coal, in the upper seams, was high-grade. Some 100 fires are still raging, the loss continues. Amrita: About coal washing - the government made no effort. Big mine-owners could sell anyway. Small ones lacked capital, though they stood to gain. Minor efforts were made sporadically. But technological advance depends on many factors. The coal industry was no exception. Steel and metal industries were expanding gradually. High-grade coal was in demand now. And World War II led to an energy crisis. Coal washing techniques now had to be developed. Now scientists, engineers, Indian mine-owners, British companies and coal consumers came together. They received government support as well. A Fuel Research Committee was formed. Coal-washing studies were conducted, samples collected and testing plants set up. By 1946, the design for a washery was approved. A proven technique, used abroad, took many years to come, but was an immediate success. Was it pressure from the scientists? Scarcity of high grade coal? Or the war-time energy crisis?
2468
246910. In the closing scene we show that all the streams in the freedom struggle, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Lohia, Bhagat Singh, all the Meerut conspiracy case guys – all of them, actually believed in rationalism and humanitarian values as the foundation of the future after independence. They thought that science and technology would transform society and rational thinking would be the way out. There were huge challenges to this thinking in 1947, when communal forces were ripping the country apart and making two countries out of one. It was difficult to hang onto rationalism at that time and to continue to insist on humanism and democracy but they all did. 
2470
2471Freedom bought out all the contradictions. At the same time that everyone was celebrating independence at the ramparts of red fort, Gandhiji was fasting in Kolkata and he had really mixed feelings about what had happened. The country as a whole got together under Nehru and looked towards the future and despite all the riots and partition, they celebrated the coming of freedom. Next episode is about that
2472
247311. There is one line where we say that how ironic that today there are some people who are trying to divide people and sow discord on the basis of language and religion. In that scene there is a glimpse of a poster of Shivaji in some primary school in that area. The members of the Censor Board (Central Board of Film Certification) objected to this and asked for the removal of that shot. They said that that your film wont be harmed, and it will be fine without that one remark about communal harmony and the shot of Shivaji’s poster. But this scene might cause a lot of trouble. 
2474
2475I went on appeal and argued with them, asking how is this going to cause trouble and what is happening is self censorship for fear of an attack. This is long before ‘Fire’ and other controversies had happened where cinema halls were attacked. The members of CBFC said what if there is a protest outside Doordarshan, and that Bombay is the stronghold of a party named after Shivaji (i. e. Shiv Sena). What if they come and attack government property and then we would be responsible?
2476
2477This was a long time ago and it sounds funny now. Members appointed in an individual capacity to act on behalf of the public and protect the public by censoring, really saw themselves as the arm of the government. I persuaded them that they were doing self-censorship, and it was just an anxiety they had. They agreed, and withdrew the demand for censorship
2478
2479Science can be used to destroyBut we hoped to use it for progressWe had many dreams when we won freedomBut we speak of what happened before thatMaitreyi: Science and the freedom struggle combined to give us people like Saha and Nehru. For them, science was not only a weapon, but the very basis of life and thought. They believed in rationalism and humanitarian values. Nissim: Gandhiji, who preached non-violence, Dr. Ambedkar, Dr. Lohia, the revolutionary Bhagat Singh - despite their ideological differences, they agreed on the need for rationalism, humanism and science. Maitreyi: They dreamt of a future when science and technology would transform society. The country faced many problems then. Some problems are still to be tackled. By 1947, rationalism and humanism were challenged by communal forces. Nissim: On 15 August, 1947, freedom brought euphoria and also the misery of Partition. Everyone had mixed feelings - Gandhi and Nehru symbolised these. Gandhi was on a fast in Calcutta, against the riots. Nehru was urging people to look towards new horizons. People responded to his call and despite Partition and the riots, they began celebrating their hard-won freedom. 
2480----------------------------------------
2481Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 12: Independent India 1947 to the present (Chandita Mukherjee) – Pad. ma
2482
2483https://pad.ma/CFT/player
2484https://pad.ma/CFT/player
2485Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 12: Independent India 1947 to the present
2486
2487Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:52:45; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 322. 819; Saturation: 0. 026; Lightness: 0. 378; Volume: 0. 305; Cuts per Minute: 8. 605; Words per Minute: 73. 996;
2488
2489Summary: This episode discusses a post-independence India. We start by understanding self-sufficiency in energy through visits to ONGC rigs and an investigation into hydro-power projects like the Sardar Sarovar Dam. We also study the effects of the Green Revolution – both the good and the bad. Finally we travel to Bali Raja Dam which is built with consensus of the local communities, by them and of local materials. 
2490
2491History of science and technology in India, Green Revolution, Nehruvian policies 
2492
2493https://pad.ma/CFT/96p. jpg
2494
2495https://pad.ma/CFT/96p. jpg
2496
2497Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 12: Independent India 1947 to the present
2498https://pad.ma/CFT
2499
2500https://pad.ma/CFT/256p. jpg
2501Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:52:45; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 322. 819; Saturation: 0. 026; Lightness: 0. 378; Volume: 0. 305; Cuts per Minute: 8. 605; Words per Minute: 73. 996;
2502
2503Summary: This episode discusses a post-independence India. We start by understanding self-sufficiency in energy through visits to ONGC rigs and an investigation into hydro-power projects like the Sardar Sarovar Dam. We also study the effects of the Green Revolution – both the good and the bad. Finally we travel to Bali Raja Dam which is built with consensus of the local communities, by them and of local materials. 
2504
2505Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 12: Independent India 1947 to the present
2506
2507Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit Duration: 00:52:45; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 322. 819; Saturation: 0. 026; Lightness: 0. 378; Volume: 0. 305; Cuts per Minute: 8. 605; Words per Minute: 73. 996 
2508
2509Summary: This episode discusses a post-independence India. We start by understanding self-sufficiency in energy through visits to ONGC rigs and an investigation into hydro-power projects like the Sardar Sarovar Dam. We also study the effects of the Green Revolution – both the good and the bad. Finally we travel to Bali Raja Dam which is built with consensus of the local communities, by them and of local materials. 
2510
2511Bharat ki Chhap: EPISODE 12
2512
2513From 1947 to now
2514
25151. This twelfth episode begins at the time of freedom. One of the characters recalls that he was just 8 years old when it happened. All night people stayed awake. Everyone was wildly enthusiastic and giving out sweets. There were great aspirations and hope for the future, in spite of the ragged feeling after partition. The new government involved people like P. C. Mahalanobis the mathematician, Homi Bhabha, Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar, Meghnad Saha. These were people brought into the process of planning for the new country. Ofcourse it was a statist agenda, rather there was a firm belief that the state was acting on behalf of the people. There was not much debate of the sort that we may like to have today, nor were there many contrary opinions to most development and science projects. They all more or less believed in that idea rational planning would see us into the future. 
2516
2517The government through laws had very hefty controls on the business class. Capitalism was not running rampant as it is today. There were a lot of restrictions. It was the time of the license raj which has been characterized by media as a form of oppression, but it was put into place to safeguard people’s rights and environment and so on. This was a different, very optimistic India, that wanted all the latest things in the world, wanted to do space science, set up a  nuclear power plants, all sorts of ambitions. 
2518
2519TV_talking heads
2520
2521Nissim: I was eight years old, but I do recall some things. The joy, sweets, processions - and now when I look back, I understand that energy, enthusiasm, those dreams. Maitreyi: And we had to make sure those dreams came true. Using the touchstone of reality we had to plan well, and judiciously allot our limited resources, to create a model for independent India. Nissim: Only after Independence was it possible for us to implement our own plans. The Independence struggle gave rise to feelings of unity and nationalism in us. And finally we won the right to take decisions for ourselves, and plan our own future. Maitreyi: The British, using science and technology, had drained our resources and reaped the fruits of the farmers' labour. But we were going to use science and technology for development, and to make India self-reliant. India was to freed from external pressures. And so, along with non-alignment policy, the public sector and heavy industry were stressed. Our leaders had assumed perhaps, that science and technology could solve all our problems. 
2522
25232. All the pulls and pushes on the process of establishing science in this new India are also talked about in this segment. Some people were interested in research, in technological applications, or to start educational institutes and research centers. Homi Bhabha said you have to have fundamental research and not just applications and putting food on the table. There has to be other kinds of work for the future. Vikram Sarabhai believed in certain kinds of application of technology, like satellites for education. They all made opportunities for themselves and did various path breaking work. 
2524
2525Nehru once said that only science could eliminate ignorance and superstition, prevent the waste of our vast natural resources and solve the problems of this hunger-stricken yet fertile land. So the participation of scientists was necessary when it came to planning. Among the scientists who took part in planning were PC Mahalanobis, Homi Bhabha, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar and Meghnad Saha. 
2526
2527Mumbai
2528
2529Homi Bhabha, TIFR
2530
2531Mumbai
2532
25334 August, 1956. Apsara - India's first nuclear reactor, went critical. Twenty years earlier, Homi Bhabha had foreseen that we were going to require nuclear power to meet our energy needs. At that stage we should have to seek help from abroad. It's significant that he stressed self-reliance and thought so far ahead. The Apsara reactor helped people to believe that our scientists would use modern technology well. 
2534
2535Bhabha was then trying to organise science here in a new way. Opportunities to study science were limited, nor was there a vision that scientists could work in industry or for national development. A few colleges did teach science. But there, too, neither basic research nor science as a profession were stressed. The only exception was the Indian Institute of Science, in Bangalore. Even there, large-scale technological research was not being done. Some scientists - including Homi Bhabha – were aware of this. These people dreamt of a new future. The young Bhabha wrote in a letter that it was essential for India to start research in fundamental physics. Not only advanced branches of physics but industry, too , could benefit from this. And so he was to found, here in Bombay, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. 
2536
2537It is true that Bhabha did not lack opportunity - yet how many in place would have used it thus? He studied abroad for several years, met major scientists like Einstein. On his return in 1940 he worked at the Indian Institute of Science. At this time his work changed direction while engaged in theoretical physics he began to feel he could play an important role in national planning as well and stressed the setting up of big industries. 
2538
2539Maitreyi: The first Five Year plan came into effect in 1952. Emphasis was laid on a scientific infrastructure, funds marked for scientific and industrial research. Modern labs and research institutes were set up. Nissim: Under the Second Five Year Plan in 1958 it was resolved to further scientific progress. This was the Scientific Policy Resolution. It was thought that involving scientists and technicians would have many advantages. Along with progress in science and technology living standards would improve, and society would move ahead. Maitreyi: Were our hopes in science and technology fulfilled? Was our confidence justified?
2540
2541TV_talking heads
2542
2543Mumbai
2544
25453. A lot of manufacture was started in India. About 60 or 70 years ago, something with a stamp ‘Made in India’ was rare. Even the needle and pin was imported from England. Today you can get many things in India. Again with globalization the trend has been reversed, because lots can be made in China at one third of the cost. But still the license raj and kind of economy that India was, meant that a lot of manufacture took place within India, there was pride in being able to make it yourself even if it was basically reinventing the wheel. In the process people did learn a few things and learnt to do it for themselves. 
2546
2547'Made in India' Today you can get whatever you need with the stamp of India on it. And forty years ago, it was said that not even needles were made here. So how did we come this far?
2548
2549Bombay – India's industrial capital. What can you not get here? It's hard to believe that barely 100km away, people live without clean drinking water, let alone electricity, medicines, education and so on. Are workers in the cities better off? They work on the latest machines in factories but most of their home lack basic comforts. Is industrialisation, then, benefiting everyone? Can setting up industries ensure overall progress? Clearly, national development is an issue larger  than industrial development. We'll discuss just one aspect - indigenous technology. 
2550
2551Suppose we were to import this car engine? Our capital would go abroad, employment would suffer, we wouldn't possess this know-how. The aim is to generate our own resources. Basic industries were set up in the public sector - so that our dependence on foreign industry would gradually decrease. 
2552
25534. The next section is about energy and we make a visit to Bombay where ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Commission) is drilling oil in the middle of the sea. The whole issue of energy for self-reliance is what we are talking about here. 
2554
2555Energy generation or extraction and its relation to the environment, costs paid by ordinary people, global warming – a lot more is understood about these issues now than was the case in 1988 when we were shooting this. In retrospect it seems there is a kind of shallow dimension to our perceptions of development when BKC was being made. The interest was all about we are meeting our own energy needs, that we are not getting the oil in from Saudia Arabia or some other oil field in another country, that we are conserving our precious foreign exchange resources because it was in fact so precious at that time. So something like ONGC and digging oil from the sea was something we were very proud of, because it certainly meant saving up resources for the country. As makers of BKC we also kind of superficially went along with these dominant perceptions while shooting these episodes about post independent India. Saying that we are great, that we can extract oil, do all these things ourselves – all of which made everyone happy in the 80s. Now we would look at it a little differently. 
2556
25575. Liberalization was something which most of us were not prepared for, it just happened. And the changes it brought about were very rapid; those of us who made this film and people like us were quite hostile to it. We could see the erosion of the notion of self-reliance, the take over of whole society by consumerism. Lot of people who believed in self-reliance were upset by erosion of the capacity to fend for yourself. Its not merely a protectionist or nationalist notion. What happens when you stop making your own machinery, transistors, you also lose the capacity to invent new things or to stay at the cutting edge. You end up a passive consumer. That is the dangerous erosion. 
2558
2559We remember when almost all our petrol, diesel, kerosene had to be imported. All such petrol pumps were owned by foreign companies. A gas connection for the home wasn't easy to get. We saved up plastic bags and re-used them. What has happened since, to change the situation?
2560
2561I went to Bombay High, out at sea, where the Oil and Natural Gas Commission's oil rigs are. After Independence, the question of energy arose. Only a few multinationals had the knowhow for oil. Their experts came, and gave discouraging reports. But leaders like Nehru and KD Malaviya realised that for energy, self-reliance was a must. 
2562
2563They kept on with the search for oil and the ONGC was established in 1956. I met Col SP Wahi, ONGC Chairman. 
2564
2565Mumbai
2566
2567Ranjan: Initially, the knowhow and equipment must have mainly been imported. How was an Indian technical base created? SP Wahi: Our leaders appreciated the need to expand our technical manpower. Technical institutes were started at the worker's and at the executive levels. Today we're proud that we can compare with the biggest and best companies worldwide. Our success ratio in exploration is 1:3. The world average is 1:5. Everything requires hard work and struggle but our scientists, engineers and technicians are so capable that they grasp things very quickly. Ranjan: In its efforts towards self-reliance what ties has ONGC formed with other industries?SP Wahi: Some 300 companies supply materials, services and equipment to ONGC. We've achieved roughly 60% self-reliance. Very sophisticated equipment is made here - drill ships, check-up rigs, off-shore structures, Christmas trees, compressors, generators, many type of material. 
2568
2569Ranjan: Oil and gas are resources that will dry up one day. In this context, what are ONGC's plans?SP Wahi: We'll be supplying 65 million tonnes of oil and 55 million tonnes of oil equivalent of gas by the year 2005. The balance requirement will have to be met by alternative energy sources. Solar energy, geothermal energy, tidal energy – we're funding research and development in all these areas. 
2570
2571Yet we can't deny that the developed countries are ahead of us in many respects - such as electronics and computers. So we have to buy foreign knowhow in certain fields. But now we're not the kind of buyers we were in 1947. Today we have an industrial base. We can choose what to buy. So what will we choose?
2572
2573New Delhi
2574
2575Ranjan: Amrita? Amrita: Yes?Ranjan: Your uncle's car is just like a foreign car!Raghu: It is foreignRanjan: But it's made here, right outside Delhi. Raghu: It's assembled here. That doesn't make it Indian. Amrita: But why make everything yourself? If something is good, why not copy it? Shehnaaz: Copying is easy. But let's assume you want a ten, not a five-horsepower engine. Everything changes. You can't simply double each part. It isn't just copying – it needs creativity. Raghu: Yes. Technology changes and becomes outmoded so fast. Our electronics industry is still assembling outmoded components. Even buying technology is creative task. If we buy foreign technology unthinkingly we'll grow more and more dependent on others. Ranjan: I feel all this is related to self-confidence. Do we trust our scientific capability, our creativity, our scientific heritage and institutions? Amrita: But foreign goods are often superior. Can we match their quality? And isn't it unfair to expect the consumer to buy something only because it's Indian?Ranjan: Does everyone look for quality alone? How different are the various toothpaste brands? People are influenced by ads, and go for names. Raghu: Anyway, quality will take time. We also started later. Must we think only of the consumer? Naturally he wants his VCR, today!Shehnaaz: But we are self-reliant in some sphere, Raghu - space science, nuclear power. You could ask who'd have helped us in these areas anyway? But in machine tools and heavy electricals there are groups doing good work too. Raghu: Yes, but why isn't that true of every field? Even the public sector has foreign collaborations. I've spoken to many scientists who have no enthusiasm left. So many CSIR processes - low-cost housing technologies etc -just lie around, while similar projects are undertaken with foreign collaboration! I'm angry because this is what stifles creativity. Can you blame those who go abroad?Shehnaaz: But have you any solution?Raghu: That's just what I don't have! Many people, many interests, and attitudes are involved. But you can't turn away from it all - the world is changing so fast I'm afraid we'll become dependent. 
2576
25776. We criticize the Maruti car for copying technology. We say copying is easy, and that you have to be creative. In retrospect some of these positions seem naïve and unnecessary. 
2578
25797. What would I change about this episode in the light of what we now know about liberalization, or the critique of it? I would change maybe the details of this episode. Now I would not lambast the Maruti car, but have a little bit more perspective. 
2580
2581If we redid these latter episodes of BKC, our concern now would be about the environment. 
2582
2583Maitreyi: Even if we adopt a certain technology and gain self-sufficiency in it it's bound to affect society and environment and we must understand these effects in advance. Nissim: Last time we saw the work done here in science, in the early decades of the twentieth century. The post-'47 developments can be discussed at length. Let's talk instead of the effect of science on our daily lives - on food, water, land environment. Besides, technology keeps changing and improving. We, too, must keep pace – and change – with it. A technology useful at one time can later pose problems. 
2584
25858. In this episode we look from a rather positive perspective at the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) drilling off the coast of Bombay. Then the episode shifts the scene to the Green Revolution. Here we are fairly critical of the achievements of the Green Revolution and some of the people on our advisory committee didn’t like it. They believed that self-sufficiency in food was such an important achievement that it didn’t matter if you depleted the soil of its primary productivity or some workers got cancer from pesticides. 
2586
2587This is an exaggeration and nobody actually said the above. But what they did say and often said was that it’s a small price to pay for the fact that you no longer have famines like the 1966 in Bihar, or mass migrations of people walking and trekking for hundreds of kilometers because they have nothing to eat. Those nightmares at least are of the past. But we believed that the critique of the Green Revolution was essential and we fought and insisted on including this segment. 
2588
2589We had some arguments and debates within our advisory committee, and ultimately we decided to stay with the slightly critical view of the three-way package of the Green Revolution – water, pesticides and fertilizer. We said that all this was going to deplete the land of its primary productivity, and this would not be good in the long run. 
2590
2591TV_talking heads
2592
2593Take the Green Revolution. The yield from our fields increased by so much that it really was like a revolution - as when humans first began farming, 9000 years ago. 
2594
2595We know how, earlier, people lived by hunting and food gathering. They could choose from some 2000 plants and each plant had several varieties. So those farmers of 9000 years ago sowed 10 to 12 varieties of the same crop. Drought, flood, an attack by pests -one variety or another would survive all these. 
2596
2597In the last 100 years, agricultural scientists have developed high-yield, fast-growing hybrids. The more popular these become the sooner the older varieties die out. Soon we'll have just 50 rice varieties left - and rice is one example. 
2598
2599In contrast to the new, high-yielding seeds the older varieties survived erratic rainfall. The risk of pest damage, or frost, was also less as each region had its special varieties which had grown accustomed over centuries to the local soil, climate, water, pests. These seeds evolved as the environment changed, while the high-yielding new seeds are delicate - so the user has to buy fertilisers, pesticides, invest in irrigation etc. Why, then, did we opt for these new seeds?
2600
26018. The point being made here by P. C. Joshi is that when you adopt certain sciences and technologies, you have to see whether it suits you or not rather than to borrow wholesale packages from another country and society and expect it to work in our context in the same way. And that is the problem with the Green Revolution
2602
2603At this point one was overwhelmed with the memory of acute famine and starvation in India. We really saw Green Revolution as one of the achievements of independent India. Younger people criticizing it on the basis of a long term perspective or on environmental grounds was not appreciated at that point. 
2604
2605Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi
2606
2607Dr PC Joshi Institute of Economic GrowthAt one time drought and, in some parts, floods forced us to import grain to meet our needs. The western nations that had surplus grain took political advantage of the situation. We were given grain on condition that we accept their policies. Therefore our leaders had to find a way for us to become self-reliant in food. But in the Green Revolution strategy we chose created problems. The Green Revolution was confined to wheat and this confined to Punjab, Haryana, west UP etc. and even there, to a few districts - in fact, to the large holdings of big farmers. On the other hand Taiwan, South Korea, Japan had Green Revolutions too - but after land reforms had taken place. Technological change followed land reforms. But here the gap between big, middle and small landowners remained. 
2608
2609Ramchandrapur, Delhi
2610
2611Raghu: Can poor farmers afford tractors, pesticides etc? Farmer1: Well, these new techniques reach us years later - and the seeds propagated are unavailable or not accompanied by enough information about what fertiliser, how much water to use etc. Raghu: And is the fertility of the soil affected?Farmer2: All these things affect the soil adversely. As it is, we lack proper irrigation facilities - we don't get canal water, the subsoil water is bad. So with more fertilisers, pesticides and this water being put in, the salinity of the soil increases. We usually can't grow the crops we used to - such as chana. Farmer1: No scientist had analysed the soil for us and told us why productivity has declined. We're just guessing it's the water or there's too much fertiliser, or something. 
2612
2613Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi
2614
2615Shehnaaz: What would you recommend in these circumstances?PC Joshi: Let's look at it as our first experiment in science as applied to farming. First, we must use science in a way that suits us rather than borrow packages from the West and expect them to work in our context. 
2616
2617Raghu: Yet, hasn't life improved with the Green Revolution?Farmer2: Oh yes. Earlier, these facilities didn't exist so people couldn't grow as much. The problem was one of survival. Now we have enough to eat and are also able to save a little for the future. Farmer1: Our worry is that our soil is growing less fertile. The government, or scientists do so many experiments. Something, surely, could be found to help us?
2618
2619Raghu: Hybrid seeds require appropriate fertilisers, pesticide, water etc. Must we, then, encourage their use? Or should we, instead, use those seeds that can be grown widely, even without such facilities?Dr NS Randhawa – Secretary, Min. of AgricultureDr. Randhawa: These new seeds yield 5 or 6 tonnes per hectare. This optimum yield calls for adequate nourishment, water, safeguards against disease. But we are looking for ways to gain high yields even if water is scarce. We have an integrated pest management scheme, and hope to get optimum yields with fewer inputs through integrated nutrient management. 
2620
2621Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi
2622
2623Maitreyi: The Green Revolution shows us that we have to look at science in a new way. For centuries we've taken nature for granted. But today we must realise we can't hope to live by disturbing the balance of nature. Nissim: There's another thing – development But whose development? And for whom? We might adopt new techniques, but the cost? And who will pay? It's dangerous to ignore these questions - as a look at the Narmada Project reveals. 
2624
26259. The BKC series does talk about being necessarily wary of adopting new techniques without evaluating costs paid by people, but the general mood was that people were only interested in the results and not the means to achieve it. This is why we here talk about the Narmada river project which was a series of dams on the river, we look at the cost benefit ratio, we interview Vinod Raina and Medha Patkar. 
2626
262710. The sequence on the Narmada Dam when finally shown on television was just totally removed. We were very surprised, the whole scene was removed while telecasting because the government didn’t want any controversy. Since the government is building the dam, they thought that government television should not be showing anything critical. 
2628
2629If you see the version of BKC that is up on Arvind Gupta’s website, the scene about Narmada dams has been removed, and this is because he had got the tapes from Department of Science and Technology. 
2630
263111. All these scenes with Medha Patkar were thrown out. Oh, she looks so young!
2632
263312. We were critical of the Narmada dam and we showed another sort of science being practiced by the people working in the Baliraja dam project. Here the people of a village Elowdi have built their own dam which is managed by people themselves and has to be constantly renovated with stones and sand. This was done by the Mukti Sangharsh Andolan. We talk about this dam and how they built it. 
2634
2635Many of the people taking part in Mukti Sangharsh Andolan were ex mill workers from Bombay who had experience of trade unionism. 
2636
2637The Narmada river. Its source is at Amarkantak and then it flows for 1300 km through Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat - past countless habitations and forest, to the sea. These are the famous Marble Rocks near Jabalpur. Here the river has created a natural reservoir where the Narmada rests awhile. Most of its water flows unutilised into the sea. Efforts have been on for twenty years to harness the water for electricity and irrigation. 30 big, 135 medium and 3000 small dams are planned. It is hoped this will boost agriculture in the Narmada valley and its environs. Also animal husbandry and fisheries. Industries will flourish, urbanisation will occur. 
2638
2639Omkareshwar, Khandwa Dist. , Madhya Pradesh
2640
2641Hoshangabad Dist. , Madhya Pradesh
2642
2643One estimate is 250 billion rupees. But this statistic only partially reflects the real cost, to be borne by all of us. 
2644
2645Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh
2646
2647I learnt of the economic aspects from Vinod Raina of Eklavya, a Bhopal-based voluntary organisation. Raina: These statistics for the Sardar Sarovar Dam are what the Tata Consultancy Services gave the Gujarat government. These are projections till 1995 - the total cost was to 61. 05 billion rupees. And the benefits? One, electricity. Two, irrigation. These benefits are translated into money. The cost-benefit ratio works to 1:1. 329. So a rupee spent brings back 1 rupee, 39 paise. So that's the benefit. Some people examined these figures again and found that certain costs were not included. These add 10. 99 billion to the initial 61. 05 billion the revised cost-benefit ratio is 1:1. 17. That means only a 17 paise benefit on each rupee. 
2648
2649Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
2650
2651Shehnaaz: But the Planning Commission recommends a 1:1. 5 ratio!Raina: Set aside all else - the impact on environment, people being displaced - even economically speaking it hardly seems viable. 
2652
2653Omkareshwar, Madhya Pradesh
2654
2655The Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi, reports that the Project will submerge 128,000 hectares. 44,000 hectares will be submerged by the Indira Sagar Dam alone. Omkareshwar, a pilgrimage spot near Indore falls within the area to be submerged. I was with environmentalist Om Prakash Rawal. Amrita: The government says it will plant new forests. Rawal: The government can only plant trees - and lay good land to waste by planting eucalyptus! But forests cannot be replaced. I don't mean just wildlife - which must be saved too, but there's more at stake. A forest generates water, enriches the atmosphere and soil. Forests prevent soil erosion and release oxygen, so necessary for humanity. And in recent years the droughts all over have made people aware of the role of forests in the recharging of water. 
2656
2657Shehnaaz: How, then, are such policies made? Raina: Well, it's claimed they're in the national interest.  So the question is - how do define 'national interest'?
2658
2659Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
2660
2661Barwani Dist. , Madhya Pradesh
2662
2663The Narmada Dam will displace 200,000 people. So it's not in their interest. Every year various developmental schemes of all kinds render some one million people homeless. This question needs to be urgently debated - if this progress in the name of science makes so many homeless, if its cost-benefit figures are bring questioned so widely - for whom is it happening? And how do such policies come into being?
2664
2665That land will be given for land is an assurance to cultivators only. What is the plan for the rehabilitation of the boatmen of this Nimad region? What will be given to the landless tribals who work are labourers? The MP government had made no promises -'The landless will get either land or jobs' - What that means should be clear to anyone not naive. 
2666
2667A seminar on the impact of the Narmada Project was held at Barwani, near Indore. Medha Patkar was among the participants. She has been working among the oustees. 
2668
2669Shehnaaz: What are the main provisions of the Narmada Tribunal and the World Bank that are being ignored?Patkar: One condition of rehabilitation is that land be given to every agricultural family and to the eldest son of each family. But where is this land? In 20 years, non of the three state governments have shown they have enough land to resettle just the agricultural families of 245 villages. And the problem goes even deeper. These tribal people have their own way of life. The govt has not provided more than 1% literacy and the people here depend on the forests, land etc. Do we, people from an alien culture and society, have the right, to uproot these tribals?
2670
2671The options we have for energy on a vast scale are nuclear power, thermal power and hydro power. Hydro power is certainly the safest source. And we do need energy. So we can't deny the importance of big dams. But can't we find a way to obtain energy without harming people or the environment?
2672
2673Maitreyi: We'd thought science would give rise to a new India, and solve our every problem. Big industries were meant to make us self-sufficient. Technological progress would end our backwardness. 50 years after Independence, we see industrialisation occurred and big dams were built, electrification projects completed, we became self-reliant in food, entered the realms of atomic energy and space, and moved ahead to a great extent. Nissim: But the basic problems? Poverty, hunger and unemployment make a mockery of our plans. The question now is - can science and technology by themselves radically change society? Or do we first need to change many other things? Perhaps we do
2674
2675It's impossible to change our pastBut together we can alter the presentAnd the present we can only graspIf we know the past and what it meantScience was born in the Stone Agethrough everyday thingsIn the Harappan citiestechniques and craft took wingThen caste came in and raised some highWhile others could not aspire to learningSome things have changed, some have notSuperstition dogs us stillOn the path of progressRahu-Ketu sway us stillIn each age from new lands have people comeBringing new knowledge and customsAnd we Indians of today are heirs to all of themWould we have come this far had division ruled us then?We lost to the British when we fell back in scienceWe'll lose again, unless we learn self-reliance
2676
2677Baliraja Dam,Balawadi, Sangli, Maharashtra
2678
267913. From the Baliraja dam project, we can see that the government builds things for you as does the PWD department, but this may not be of lasting value to the people of the area and would just bring profits to the contractor. Since people are building their infrastructure for themselves, their whole approach, the quality of work and maintenance of it, is very different
2680
2681We also tried to show that there may be different ways even for the government, for building public works – through community meetings and discussions where everyone has a right to speak; that the output of the dam and the water that comes will be distributed equally to everybody. It will have nothing to do with how much land a person owns and how influential they are in the panchayat samiti and so on. 
2682
2683The other thing is that the people who built the Baliraja dam for themselves, also resolved not to grow sugar cane because they don’t want to grow crops which use water intensively. They preferred crops like pomegranates, which are commercially viable but also less water intensive. They tried to grow trees and then use the leaves for composting. Along with their rights to their own kind of development, they also became aware of their responsibilities to the environment and other factors. This dam was the outcome of people’s hard work and mutual struggle and cooperation with each other. 
2684
268514. Our objective in hihglihgting Baliraja dam was as an alternative to the binary of the big dam or nothing, that its possible to have many little dams with local materials and local resources. To share output equally. With a big dam people don’t even really know when the water will come flooding into their paddy fields, and are never told about schedules. Influential people and groups always collar the water first and get largest amounts of water. 
2686
268715. Nuclear power, hydro power and thermal power are used on a large scale in India. Hydro power is the safest source and we do need energy. We can t deny the importance of dam, but can’t we find a way to obtain energy without harming people and environment. This is the concern amongst people who thought like us at that time. This is what led to Narmada Bachaon Andolan, and all that would happen in the years to come. 
2688
2689I guess that side lost and all these projects that benefit contractors and harm people and environment, are getting sanctioned, they are burgeoning and growing even when sitting on dangerously seismic zones. And each time there is a struggle to get them put off. 
2690
2691In Maharashtra's Khanapur taluka the Yerla flows between Balawadi and Tandulwadi, full of sand and stones. This entire area is drought-afflicted. A dam being built here, the Bali Raja Smriti Dharan. The legend is that Bali was king of the farmers. He fought against injustice - and this dam is really a movement to fight drought. There are thousands of drought-affected villages. What happened here to inspire people to come together in this way?
2692
2693How is this dam different? First, only local materials are being used such as sand and stones. After a long struggle the people of Balawdihave also won the contract for selling the sand. The dam costs 50% less than is usual. Most significant is the people's participation at every stage. Here, the Mukti Sangharsh Andolan had a vital role. 
2694
2695The Andolan arose from a struggle against injustice and corruption. After Bombay's textile mill strike in 1982-83 many jobless workers returned to their villages and with the workers of Khanapur taluka began this movement. 
2696
2697I spent some days here meeting the villagers. Till 1980, they said, conditions were not so bad. Later, the drought worsened. It was interesting to talk to the women. I wanted to know more about their involvement. They took part in the demonstrations. And now they feel more aware of their rights. They're self-confident and unconcerned about what people say. They're not even scared of the police!
2698
2699There were also villagers and college students doing voluntary labour at the dam site. K J Joy of the Mukti Sangharsh explained some technical aspects of the dam. Sluice gates here will reduce the siltation. Pressure gates will let out excess water. 
2700
2701The villagers told me it's been a constant struggle. Drought-affected areas have govt schemes for employment, but here they had to fight for one. And they wanted work that would be relevant and of lasting value. 
2702
2703I went to their weekly meeting where all participated equally. They told me their objective had been to understand how drought, irrigation and crops were linked. Everyone participated at each stage - from planning, to choosing the dam site and deciding how the water should be used. People will have equal water rights regardless of whether, or how much, land they own. Experiments are under way on five acres to find the most efficient ways of using water and to get relief from drought. The approach has been scientificJaywant and Ransingh demonstrated some simple methods any farmer can use, such as gauging the loss of water through evaporation. Instead of crops like sugarcane, crops which need less water – like pomegranate, will be encouraged - nutritious crops which earn good money too. 
2704
2705Trees good for fuel and wood, such as Australian babool and teak are being grown. Their leaves can be used for making compost - All this points to a method of farming which enables self-reliance and doesn't harm the environment. When people thought about their rights they became aware of their responsibilities too. They made a plan, and tackled their problems. And so, Bali Raja is not just a dam - it's a symbol of the people's struggle. 
2706
270716. 
2708
2709This song in episode 12 is that it’s impossible to change our past but together we can alter the present, and the present we can only grasp if we know the past and what it meant. The song says that science was born in the Stone Age and through everyday things. Essentially this is the theme of the whole series. It is in everyday things, in how people live, and in the way that they choose to solve their problems of food, transport, energy that we can understand something about society. 
2710
2711The song also reasserts that we loose unless we learn to be self-reliant. This is already lost in the world after globalization or has no resonance any more with people. As long as the latest gadget released in the west, is released here on the next day, preferably at a cheaper price, people don’t really care about self-reliance. They are content living in a world of satellite television that we fill up with all the latest in the world. Criticality has died, even the kind that was sentimental and nationalist has died. 
2712
271317. BKC was a mainstream TV show being shown on Sunday morning at 9 am. Everybody watched it. Some people and policy makers criticized it. Like Sunil Alagh of the Planning Commission wrote a letter to Professor Yashpal saying that the criticism of Narmada dam was nonsense. Even though they cut out some scenes, like the interview with Vinod Raina. But Alagh was upset even with the scenes that were not directly critical of the dam. 
2714
2715Today in Gujarat if anything is said against the Narmada dam, you will beaten up and called desh drohi and Pakistani/ISI agent and various other things. Today it is more difficult to criticize Statist projects of ‘big science’, because there are financial and economic implications for other players like corporations and firms, and many of these determine the media agenda. My opinion is that now critical thinking and such filmmaking is marginalized. Even if there are people who make films which show injustice and inequity, these are made for film festivals or distribution amongst friends and small circles. These filmmakers have to be content with only a few thousand people seeing their films. 
2716
271718. This episode ends with the Baliraja dam and with a kind of hope that these are the new ways in which people can use science and technology of a scale they can manage and they can benefit from. 
2718
2719The past tells us who we are'What's past is past' but it brought us hereAnd here is where we can seize the dayTo shape our future in a different way
2720----------------------------------------
2721Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 13: Retrospect & Prospect (Chandita Mukherjee) – Pad. ma
2722
2723https://pad.ma/CFU/player
2724https://pad.ma/CFU/player
2725Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 13: Retrospect & Prospect
2726
2727Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:58:30; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 273. 371; Saturation: 0. 061; Lightness: 0. 385; Volume: 0. 241; Cuts per Minute: 5. 776; Words per Minute: 77. 022;
2728
2729Summary: Taking from excerpts from past episodes we trace our journey and look at solutions for the future. We meet local organisations training people about afforestation, adult literacy and community health and visit an experimental school where exciting activities and lively discussions move beyond the textbooks. We investigate a city which has repeated cases of communal violence. And finally we discuss some interesting outcomes and possible directions with Professor Yashpal. 
2730
2731History of science and technology in India, alternative models of teaching 
2732
2733https://pad.ma/CFU/96p. jpg
2734
2735https://pad.ma/CFU/96p. jpg
2736
2737Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 13: Retrospect & Prospect
2738https://pad.ma/CFU
2739
2740https://pad.ma/CFU/256p. jpg
2741Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit; Duration: 00:58:30; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 273. 371; Saturation: 0. 061; Lightness: 0. 385; Volume: 0. 241; Cuts per Minute: 5. 776; Words per Minute: 77. 022;
2742
2743Summary: Taking from excerpts from past episodes we trace our journey and look at solutions for the future. We meet local organisations training people about afforestation, adult literacy and community health and visit an experimental school where exciting activities and lively discussions move beyond the textbooks. We investigate a city which has repeated cases of communal violence. And finally we discuss some interesting outcomes and possible directions with Professor Yashpal. 
2744Bharat ki Chhap - Episode 13: Retrospect & Prospect
2745
2746Director: Chandita Mukherjee; Cinematographer: Ranjan Palit Duration: 00:58:30; Aspect Ratio: 1. 366:1; Hue: 273. 371; Saturation: 0. 061; Lightness: 0. 385; Volume: 0. 241; Cuts per Minute: 5. 776; Words per Minute: 77. 022 
2747
2748Summary: Taking from excerpts from past episodes we trace our journey and look at solutions for the future. We meet local organisations training people about afforestation, adult literacy and community health and visit an experimental school where exciting activities and lively discussions move beyond the textbooks. We investigate a city which has repeated cases of communal violence. And finally we discuss some interesting outcomes and possible directions with Professor Yashpal. 
2749
2750Bharat ki Chhap: EPISODE 13
2751
2752Retrospect and Prospect
2753
2754Did they, too, sing? -Did they hum?Did they have. . . . . . . a language?Surely they named their thingsTaught their children what they knewThat's all very well, but. . . What language did they speak?Who were the first Indians?
2755
27561. This last episode is a flashback episode, and begins by going back to episode 2 where the characters are singing and dancing in the Bhimbetka caves. We ask again – what was the language of those first Indians, what did they do with that language, did they pass on what they knew to their children in that language, who were the first Indians? Then our characters are shown a couple of years later sitting around in their studio cum research office room, which is our office in Nehru center. They are talking and reviewing this whole journey that they have had through several thousand years of civilization in India. 
2757
2758Raghu: Tired of watching yourself?Maitreyi: Yes - we don't get to dance and singRanjan: Fortunately for the viewers!Amrita: It's not easy to do lip sync, you knowMaitreyi: I know!
2759
2760Maitreyi: We met the first Indians in the Stone Age where we began our search for the Indian identity - a search that led us to the twentieth century. We spoke last time of post – Independence India. Now it's time to look back, and ahead. We've learnt that we've always had a tradition of science, Nissim: that exchanges with other cultures have always helped science to grow, that society and science have constantly influence each other. Maitreyi: This is an age of science and technology. How will they be used in our society? What methods will we adopt?
2761
27622. The next scene shows satellite imagery being used to plan the future. We learn about how remote sensing can be used to locate minerals, give weather reports to farmers, look at the changing state of the environment, how desserts are spreading, resources under the sea and ground water and so on. The data collected by satellites can be converted into these photographic images, which anybody including ordinary people can also read. These images give a kind of overview of India. Then this technology, known as remote sensing, was relatively new. There was a lot of pride that these images were made via a satellite that was ‘made in India’. It was not a NASA image, but from the IRS1A satellite, a project of the State that was pro people. It was said that this satellite technology would be used by various scientists to work for the benefit of the people. 
2763
2764Ranjan: Dr. Gupta is studying false colour composites of Sriharikota, taken by the IRS 1A satellite. Dr. Gupta: The red here shows forests and vegetation. The blue depicts water masses. This is Pulicate Lake and this, the Bay of Bengal. Different colours can show forest types and densities. Ranjan: Can details be seen?Dr. Gupta: Yes, we can zoom in or out. 
2765
2766National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad
2767
2768great photos
2769
2770Remote sensing can help greatly in planning. It can be used to locate minerals, give essential weather reports to farmers, analyse the state of the environment. The spreading of deserts can be monitored, resources under the sea located, flood and drought predicted, ground water sources discovered. 
2771
2772TV_talking heads
2773
2774The satellite sends digital signals that the receiving station records on tape. This information is analysed by a computer as required, can be converted into a photographic image of the sort being produced here. 
2775
2776great photos
2777
2778This machine is processing one such enlarged photographic image. 
2779
2780Dr. Madhavan Unni of the National Remote Sensing Agency has been studying the loss of forest cover. Remote sensing can also tell us about changes in one place over a period of time for the satellite regularly scans the same area. 
2781
2782Forest cover monitoring is one example. The Forest Act says the minimum forest cover should be 33%, though between the plains and hills it could vary. Official statistics put our cover at 23%. But satellite images of the 1972-75 period showed it to be less than 17%. And pictures taken during '80-'82 showed that less than 14% remained. 
2783
2784People know of the destruction of forests - but the extent of the loss was a revelation. This report also proved for the first time that remote sensing could give us information about large areas, in a short time. 
2785
2786This technology shall be considered a success only when people demand satellite information, and make it an integral part of their lives - when decisions are made on its basis by farmers, forest officers, politicians. 
2787
2788Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi
2789
27903. We meet Dr. P. C. Joshi, who was then at the Indian Institute of Economic Growth and he says that the generation of people who lived through the freedom struggle dreamt of a time when there would be scientific culture, and that this culture of rational thinking and science would help realize all our unfulfilled dreams. People would invent and create solutions for their problems on the basis of rational and humanistic understanding. This is the dream that is not fulfilled yet (in 1987) that Dr. P. C. Joshi is talking about, and science is the wealth that we have and we should make it grow. 
2791
2792Dr. PC Joshi teaches at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. Joshi: Why should the West have a monopoly on science? India can help to create a new scientific culture. This was Nehru's dream -a dream that is unfulfilled. The people of India will not enter a new age until science enters their lives. Science alone is the wealth of this age. 
2793
27944. Just like the Baliraja dam in the previous episode we are looking at alternative ways that are being explored by various groups all over the country and here we go down to, a place near Udaipur where women’s groups are working. We explore the literacy movements, women’s rights, people’s afforestation movement and other related movements. 
2795
27965. By the time we did this episode the program was already on air and we were really being pressured for time. Since it was being shot on film, we needed at least a gap of 2 to 3 weeks to the time of telecast. In actuality, we really did not have the time to think back. This was just really a quick montage of the significant highlights or learnings of past episodes, with the visuals from past episodes. 
2797
27986. We reiterate that science needs an atmosphere for new ideas to emerge and spread and we’ll say that why didn’t science grow much during Akbar’s rule. It is however inexplicable as to what is needed to make science grow. Is it individuals like Jaisingh and his fervent interest in astronomy that led him to expend time, energy and money to make an accurate and full calendar. There is something to the quality of wonder which is true of all human beings for all times. All these are a series of speculations rather than firm realizations, and with them we reach a conclusion to the BKC series. 
2799
2800Learn, friends, learnFrom the basicsStart from the basicsYou are to be the pioneersIt isn't too late as yetFor you are to be the pioneers
2801
2802Udaipur Dist. , Rajasthan
2803
2804Disseminating science is linked to the question of organising people to work together. Such efforts are on in many places. Take Sewa Mandir in Rajasthan, which train villagers to run their own projects - adult education, afforestation, health awareness, nursery schools. 
2805
28067. We talk about the different modes of education and what the government was doing with the Ekalavya schools at that time. The Ekalavya scene emphasizes learning by doing, learning by asking questions and training teachers according to this. The children then too ask questions and don’t just passively transmit what is in the books. 
2807
2808Ranjan: So it came up at a meeting? What prompted you to take up this work? Woman: The women's group decided. Ranjan: And then? Were you trained?Woman: Yes Ranjan: Where?Woman: At KayaRanjan: By Sewa Mandir? Woman: YesRanjan: What did the training consist of?Woman: Teaching poems, gamesWoman2: If the women didn't come to literacy class I'd visit them again, explain to them. Ranjan: How many come now? Woman2: About fifteenRanjan: And how often did you have to go, to convince them?Woman2: House to house? Often! Slowly, they understood. One must learn to sign one's name. Ranjan: Why is it different from a thumb print?Woman2: It's better to write
2809
2810GROW FORESTS FORESTS BRING RAIN
2811
2812Ranjan: How many trenches on this plot?Man: Seven hundred and fiftyRanjan: And what benefits did all that work bring?Man: The excess water from trenches higher up percolates down to plants in the lower trenches. So no water is wasted - and the soil retains moisture and grass grows, binding the soil. 
2813
2814LET CLEANLINESS CHASE AWAY DARKNESS
2815
2816DON'T DIP YOUR HAND IN THE WATER, USE A LADLE
2817
2818FOR GARBAGE
2819
2820Ranjan: How have people responded to the health campaign?Man2: A five-member committee was set up and a meeting of villagers held. People agrees to work for this cause and a major change has come about in our homes. 
2821
2822Raghu: Look at these medicine samples and booklets given by drug companies to a doctor friend! Medical practice is full of 'careerism' - doctors in villages are hard to find and the drug industry aims only at profits. Drugs for TB and leprosy are in short supply but useless cough syrups and vitamins are available in plenty. Amrita: You're talking about the curing of disease but surely prevention is simpler?Raghu: Well, take workers exposed to health hazards - here's a report on Bombay's sewerage workers. Their demands for better equipment and conditions have always fallen on deaf ears. Recently, some lawyers, doctors and others formed the Occupational Health and Safety Centre - and their first study was on these workers. 
2823
2824Amrita: Science, we've seen, can't change society on its own, nor can the people's science movement do so. But it can show us ways we hadn't seen before, or lacked the courage to embark upon. It can play a major role by joining forces with peasant and worker movements, govt projects, school education. And by using the mass media. Raghu: These films, too, were inspired by the people's science movement. Our attempt to know, and communicate what we learn, about India's scientific past -this, too, is part of the work of people's science. Shall we begin?
2825
2826-From the very beginning?
2827
2828-Yes!
2829
2830Knowledge and science grew, society wore new colours
2831
2832The sequence of our evolution was roughly the same everywhere. Tool-making techniques also reflect this. The use of a handle saved human energy, and the tool developed as well. And when humans learnt to hurl spears, their tools did the running for them. These light tools with small, sharp blades bring us to the threshold of agriculture. 
2833
2834Agriculture began, and just 3000 years later came the Harappan cities!A brick is the basic unit of a wall. Walls make a house. A group of houses is a neighbourhood. Streets link these to form a city. Cities can come up haphazardly but the Harappan cities were all well-planned. Fired brick was hardly used in the Vedic Age cities but for their ritual altars, they used kiln-fired bricks. Thus their geometry grew, as the Shulbasutras show. 
2835
2836The Greek proof of this theorem, taught in schools, is based on the triangle. The Shulbasutras explain it using the rectangle. Take a rectangle. On two adjacent sides, make squares. Draw a diagonal through the rectangle and make a square on it. The sutra says that the square on the diagonal equals in area the sum of the squares on the sides. We must also remember that the Shulbasutras give no proofs of theorems. Some scholars hold that proofs existed but were not worked into the sutras. Yet it's true that because of this lacuna our geometry, unlike Greek geometry, never developed a logical system. 
2837
2838The brahmans kept all knowledge to themselves. Women were denied the right to learn, so were the lower castes Ayurveda was different. 
2839
2840In Bastar we met a medicine man, Ganjuaramji. Ayurveda stresses learning from folk traditions - this made it unique among the disciplines of its time. The Sushrata Samhita says that to learn about medicinal plants, physicians must seek the help of those who gather forest fruit, leaves, roots - hunters, shepherds etc. 
2841
2842The Charaka Samhita speaks of three modes of diagnosis – authority, direct observation, logical analysis. But authority must pass the test of observation and analysis. 
2843
2844Ayurveda called for the close scrutiny of things. Because debate was possible, progress was made. That's how science grows. But where there is no freedom of thought, things gets oppressive - and anti-establishment views emerge
2845
2846All round was a strange disquietA revolution was under waySomeone said -“Life is an illustion and struggle futile”Someone said -“There is no God in this world”“Nor reincarnation”Someone else said -“It makes no differenceGood deeds or bad – for good is not rewardednot bad deeds punished”
2847
2848Why is the colour of this mug brown? And of the sky, blue? Why does this orange smell so sharp? Is there really an orange here at all? Yes, because my senses tell me it exists. These are questions of science, and of philosophy. The materialists believe in their sense, while the idealists denied the reality of this world. And the Lokayatiks – extreme materialists - cared little for wordy debates. 
2849
2850- But when you dream of a well? The well isn't there when you wake up. Our waking life, too, is like a dream and you cannot prove this well really exists. 
2851
2852- Friend, I know the well I dreamt of was illusory, for my senses and reason told me that was a dream. This proves our senses and reason tell us the truth. And when you call your dream an illusion aren't you, too, relying on your senses and reason? How then can you say that they deceive us? You contradict yourself!
2853
2854- Right, so the well exists. But is there water in it?
2855
2856- These Lokayatiks will never allow us any peace!
2857
2858Shehnaaz: Scholars of the time must have had to put scientific and unscientific matters side by side. Otherwise, we might not have even known of them. Ranjan: Also, those may have been their beliefs - they, too, were part of that society. Raghu: That's why I consider Aryabhata unique. Except for an invocation at the start and end the Aryabhatiya has nothing extra-scientific in it. 
2859
2860Of the metals, gold most impressed the ancients for it never lost its lustre. It began to be thought that partaking of gold in some form would ensure an equally perfect body. Thus alchemy strove to discover two secrets - that of turning base metal into gold and that of immortality. So they experimented with a variety of minerals and plants. This knowledge could have let to modern chemistry but stayed confined to the medicines of Ayurveda. 
2861
2862Contact with other lands also helped scienceYes. In alchemy and mathematics the Arab-Sino-Indian exchange was fruitful. 
2863
2864The zero existed not only in India but in other ancient cultures – Babylon, China.  Though it was our mathematicians who used the digits 0 to 9 to depict numbers of any size, and made the zero an independent number. Brahmagupta, in the 7th century framed a new set of rules – the operations of zero. 
2865
2866Science needs an atmosphere which allows new ideas to emerge and spread. Then why didn't science grow much in Akbar's time? There was so much cultural exchange, translations of Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit works - an open atmosphere is perhaps not enough. 
2867
2868Take Sawai Jai Singh of JaipurYes, what led to his interest in astronomy? In his book he wrote:“The places of the stars, appearances of the new moon, eclipses of the sun and moon, the conjuction of heavenly bodies - when these are computed by this book they shall arrive as near as possible at the truth”
2869
2870He must have been curious - looking up at the sky and wanting to know moreThis quality of wonder is true of everybody who has done major scientific workIt's true of all humans! Without that wonder we'd still be in the Stone Age
2871
2872The past tell us who we are'What's past is past' but it brought us hereAnd here is where we can seize the dayTo shape our future in a different way
2873
2874Hoshangabad Dist. , Madhya Pradesh
2875
2876Today we'll collect plant and soil samples. Later, we'll sit and discuss these. Take care not to injure the plant while plucking leaves etc. The class will separate into groups. 
2877
2878I visited some schools in Madhya Pradesh, where the Eklavya group works with the local school system. The first experiments were in science teaching. 
2879
2880Now which of these is a dicot root?-Sir, this one. -And the monocot root?This one-Which root does this have? -Monocot-And what is this plant? -Soyabean-What root does it have? -DicotCan you name a fruit that shows where its flower was?No, sirNo? Well. Let's go to the vegetable marketDo you see any vegetables like that?-Yes, sir -Which ones?Brinjal, tomato --What do you see? - The flowerGourd, cucumber --They bear the flower's . . . ? -Mark
2881
2882GOVT MIDDLE SCHOOL, UDAN
2883
2884By reforming the method of science teaching we hoped to transform ways of thinking - to encourage a scientific outlook which went beyond the things of science, so that people would look at everyday things and at society in a new way, and start asking questions. So we tried to learn from the experience of those who'd been teaching for many years in village schools etc, asked them to join us. They told us what sort of problems they faced and how to present things so children would understand easily. 
2885
2886Earlier, the syllabus was rigid, but now it's more flexible. Children learn by doing things. The parts of a flower used to be explained by a simple drawing. Now children bring various flowers to class, ask many questions, express curiosity. If the teachers don't know all the answers they consult their colleagues. 
2887
2888During training, the teachers do practicals themselves. There is discussion and debate - and this is the method they'll adopt in class, so that children learn to question. 
2889
2890The children had begun to ask questions in other subjects too. But the teaching methods were not geared to cope with questions that went beyond the scope of the syllabus. Then for history, civics and geography new syllabi were developed. In history, the aim has been to understand social contexts of the past and, in their light, to critically examine established values. 
2891
28928. In a scene at the school child is asked whether he would take a lower caste child home with him for lunch. He says no, my parents would object and wouldn’t allow it. By himself he thinks that education and merit is what is important and not caste. All the children agree with this child. The scene is complicated and real, but rather than take a risk Doordarshan decided to remove the scene. We don’t know the actual reason since these were some of the scenes that were removed without asking or communicating with any of us from BKC, but at the moment of telecast we would realize that a scene has been removed. We can only speculate that some bureaucrats in Doordarshan said you called somebody brahmin and chamar, and just with these words we will incite a riot because someone will not like it. It is better to not refer to existing caste prejudices at all. 
2893
28949. The objection was that you are encouraging casteism by having a scene in which a child says in public that he would not take another classmate home for lunch. This means he is practicing untouchability, and this is illegal in constitution. As the channel of the State, Doordarshan cannot show these unconstitutional activities going on or appear to promote them. Also this is happening in a government school. This bureaucratic paranoia is probably what led to the scene being chopped off. None of the makers or those involved in BKC even knew this was going to happen, and it was chopped off before it was telecast. Only while watching were we surprised by these scenes cut by the State. The other scene cut in a similar manner, without warning or discussion, were those in which Medha Patkar appears and talks about the Narmada dam. 
2895
289610. My opinion with regard to the episode of the child and what he says in classroom, is that it is refreshing that such discussions are even happening in a classroom. Hopefully these children continue to talk like this, openly. This conversation should perhaps be viewed without our contemporary understanding of merit, which got much more complicated because of the reservations under the V. P. Singh government and the Mandal commission riots that took place. 
2897
2898“In the time of Buddha and Ashoka occupations were yet to be divided caste-wise. But some castes had emerged – like the brahmans. They wrote the lawbooks which laid down harsher punishments for the lower castes”
2899
2900So caste is still a barrier?
2901
2902Would you take a lower-caste boy home for lunch?
2903
2904My parents would object
2905
2906-Why? -Because of his caste
2907
2908-And what is your caste? -Sir, we're brahmans
2909
2910Wouldn't you want to invite him over?
2911
2912Yes, sir, but my parents wouldn't allow it. 
2913
2914-Is that so far all? -Yes, sir!
2915
2916Is it reasonable today to have caste as any kind of basis?
2917
2918How should we assess a person today?
2919
2920-Education? -Merit?
2921
2922That's right. Today, the criterion is -?
2923
2924-Merit!
2925
2926Discussions about caste or religion can lead to conflict in the classroom, so teachers must use tact. With civics, too, the attempt was to analyse government planning and policy with reference to the local context. “The Green Revolution led to higher yields, but mainly in areas that were fertile anyway. Big and medium farmers benefited most” So our food problem was solved, but the gap between rich and poor grew wider. Poverty is much talked of in this country. But it doesn't go away. What's that?! Now why do you say it'll keep increasing?Sir, poverty increases as population risesI see! How simple. What else?How is population linked to poverty?Good question!And when you finish your studies will you join the ranks of the poor, or. . . -The rich! -We can't sayYes, Vikas?Sir, we could go into business“Greater productivity did not, then, ensure progress. Student demonstrators in Gujarat and Bihar sought a guarantee of employment. Landless farmers in Bihar and Bengal demanded land. ”One moment – yes?Sir, why did students agitate for employment? Think. The students saw their educated seniors roaming jobless, and they wanted to make sure their own future would be different. For instance, are you sure you'll get jobs?-No, sir. -Read on. Is that clear?“What do you think is the reason for poverty in our country? How would you eradicate it, and increases productivity?”
2927
2928The new syllabus has questions that relate to the students' environment. Thus, children grow more aware of their rights and duties, which is the main aim of civics. 
2929
2930What if India were not to take loans? Loans force us to submit to external pressures. Sir, if we don't take loans we can grow what we like in our fields -True. Self-reliance is a good thingAnd what if we give loans to other nations?-We'll order them around! -We won't be poor!
2931
2932A key aspect of this experiment is the attempt to transform attitudes - both, of the teacher, and of the teaching method. And these are no small matters!
2933
2934Shehnaaz: Those children were wonderful! But I can't help thinking as grown-ups in the outside world, will they still ask questions in this way? Nissim: Well, some childhood habits do remain. Ranjan: I don't think society encourages such things - asking questions, looking minutely at everything. And given everyday tensions, economic problems etc. such high-minded ideas stand little chance. Shehnaaz: A bigger problem, Ranjan, is the social pressure to conform. Nissim: Stick to orthodox ideas and ask no questions that needn't be asked. Ranjan: In such an atmosphere, to doubt or ask for proof needs a special resolve. Shehnaaz: YesNissim: Yet it's possible. In older times, such people would lose caste, or be imprisoned. Shehnaaz: That still happens in some places. Here, too, medieval thinking coexists with mixers and Marutis!
2935
2936TV_talking heads
2937
293811. As a director and someone involved throughout BKC series, I have to say that we got away with only minor censorship; only a few cuts were demanded and a couple scene-removals were made in an ad hoc fashion, but this was not that many. Today what we could say would be far more censored, if we did a similar series on history of science and technology in India. And this would not be by the State or government channel like Doordarshan, but even by private media channels if they chose to telecast such a series. In all probability, most private media channels would not even play such programs. 
2939
2940If Europe needed some two centuries to remove inequality, it's possible today, with science to eradicate illiteracy and untouchability in ten years. China did it and so did Vietnam. Many nations less advanced than us scientifically have, based on social awareness, got rid of destitution, if not poverty. But we have not yet made a common cause with social objectives, so as to use science to fight these ills. When Vikram Sarabhai was asked why a poor country like India wanted to enter the space age, wasn't it a luxury – he said no, it was a necessity. Time was a constraint for us, distances a problem - so if, in the most remote and backward areas we install community television sets, even the illiterate can watch. 
2941
2942Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi
2943
294412. In another classroom scene, the children discuss productivity and population and reach the conclusion that productivity needs to be increased and its not merely about reducing population. Such issues were discussed in these classrooms where alternatives to education were being explored. 
2945
294612. There is also a scene in the classroom where the teacher says what if India did not take loans from the World Bank. What would happen then? There is a discussion amongst the children in the classroom on how these loans force us to submit to external pressures and self-reliance is a good thing. Then the teacher asks about what would happen if we were the ones giving loans, and the children strutted and yelled and said they would demand that those taking loans obey their orders, how we would no longer be poor, and so on. These exercises are probably more revelatory that didactic forms of educating, and that is perhaps what we want to show through this focus on education in the last episode. How can education transform attitudes of children and teachers who practice a different kind of syllabus?
2947
2948There is a lot of social pressure to conform, to stick to orthodox ideas, to not ask questions that need not be asked. That kind of education is the enemy of science. The point being made is that we may have mixers and drive a Maruti car now, but these are the atitudinal changes that we need. 
2949
295013. Dr. P. C. Joshi who is the chairman of the Software Committee in 1984, talks about how market forces have free play. Television is not being used for education but for the dreamers and in fact obscurantists who have taken over the television. He says there is a nexus between TV and obscurantism – here he’s referring to Ramayana and Mahabharat being telecast via TV. He is particularly annoyed by this because he is a leftist. You can imagine what he would be saying about obscurantism taking over TV, now that entire channels are dedicated to baba and astrology. 
2951
295214. The last mile problem was that infrastructure, namely roads and telephone wires reached only so much into the Indian hinterland, and how do you reach across the last mile to a person in a remote village. At that point it was thought that satellite and TV would cross the last mile, but now it seems like it is the mobile phone that has crossed the last mile. It is J. C. Bose, an Indian scientist, who invented the transmitter that is the basis of mobile phone technology, and it uses sound waves that exist in nature to transmit communication. 
2953
2954Many of the scientists, bureaucrats, thinkers, activists and others who were keen on literacy as social reform, assumed that once people read and you put in their hands a book, that enlightenment and critical thinking would follow. It is only much later that we realize that actually literacy is only the beginning of a step. What is then available to you via literature or television is critical in determining the worldview; literacy alone is not going to do that. 
2955
2956Shehnaaz: Your Software Committee Report of '84 made many recommendations about the national TV network. What do you think of the way TV is being used today? Joshi: Even if we assume there are a crore of TV sets - where are they? In the big cities or in villages close to cities. This is a far cry from Sarabhai's dream. Market forces have free play, so there are films that are irrelevant, and the goods advertised are of the type that only the rich can afford. And its hold is pernicious. When the Committee was set up, Mrs. Gandhi assured us that the report would be used to take TV to the people, to cater to common needs. But this isn't being done. The communications revolution has been overtaken by the obscurantists, who don't want people to emerge from backwardness. There's a clear nexus. 
2957
2958TV_talking heads
2959
2960Meerut, Uttar Pradesh
2961
296215. In this scene, we talk about communalism. This is the anatomy of a small town that is very prone to flaring up every now and then. We meet some people who worked against communalization and riots, and they talk about how these riots are created by people. We meet individuals who have lived here and suffered from these riots. These riots are not spontaneous but are engineered for political benefit. 
2963
2964Now communal flare-ups are much more likely than in 1987 when we were shooting. Many people were killed in these riots, including one of the family members of a person interviewed for BKC. We are meeting them two years later when cases are going on in court, here they are able to talk about it in a calm and objective manner. At that point it is remarkable but we were able to shoot without having some Hindutva vaadi coming and spearing us with trishuls, even if RSS people knew that we were making this film. It was a different world, we did not sneak around and were open about what we were shooting. A busload of 20 technicians and actors accompanied us everywhere. I feel that now there would be more tension, people would not speak to us and would not let us into their houses. 
2965
296616. The making of BKC was possible because of the backing of old science establishments that provided us with a safe pen within which we did what we felt we had to. These scenes about communal riots would not conventionally be considered a part of history of science but we had very good people on the advisory committee and particularly Professor Yash Pal, who was supportive of these ‘digressions’. 
2967
2968I came to this town a few days ago. It's a small town – the population is roughly half Hindu, half Muslim. It's an old town, not unlike other old towns Agra, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Srinagar, Ahmedabad and some sections of Delhi and Bombay. It's known as a 'sensitive' town. Communal riots are frequent here. Roaming through its bazaars and workshops, one sees that their work brings both communities together. There are new and traditional industries - the owner is usually from one community, the workers from another. They depend on each other. Yet the town is increasingly segregated into Hindu and Muslim areas. Reading about riots in the papers, one wonders - why do they happen? How do communal ideas spread? I spoke to several people
2969
2970Where people come together for work they say they can't do without each other. One senses less alienation in the industrial sector. Well, people have to work together but the alienation is there at every level. The masjid-mandir issue is an excuse -for without a deeper basis, this issue could not have provoked people so much. Besides political reasons there are social and economic reasons as well. 
2971
2972Dr. Harpal Singh and Dr. Savitri Singh are college teachers, known for their secular views. Yet their son Prabhat - a doctor – was killed in the '87 riots. His wife, Alka, is also a doctor. There are two children. In a sense, this is a digression, but perhaps not. In the circumstances, it's not easy to remain secular. Dr. Harpal Singh took me around town to areas where people had lived through riots
2973
2974I'm Jamaluddin, and have lived here for 25 years. Hashimpura had no Hindu-Muslim trouble in '87 - it was instigated by the PAC, by the administration. Ranjan: Is this a wholly Muslim locality?Jamaluddin: Yes, with about a dozen Hindu families. Now is the Muslims had wanted to harm Hindus they could have attacked these Hindu homes, surely? At 3. 30pm on the 22nd, Hashimpura was surrounded. Every male, from 10 to 60 years of age was arrested, and shoved out into the street. I was there too. 42 youngsters were taken to the Muradnagar canal by the Hindon river, shot, and dumped in the water. Six survived. You'll meet one of them, Usman. I've made this register. These boys were 17, 14 and 13 years old - all from one family. This boy was 21, this one was 13, this man was 45. The PAC spared nobody. Ranjan: I've heard that your son -Jamaluddin: Yes. My son Kamruddin was also killed. He was 22. 
2975
2976Ranjan: What happened after you were hit by two bullets and thrown in the water?Survivor: I reached the bank somehow and stopped a motorcycle. They were policemen, who took me to hospital in a jeep. They said -“You say what you like, but don't mention the PAC!”
2977
2978So some blamed only the administration, and spoke of police oppression. But those I met later had quite a different version of the riots. A small drain separates Hashimpura and Subhash Nagar. Yet, what a distance!
2979
2980On the morning of the 19th there was a commotion in Hashimpura, so we too responded. Bricks flew, and also burning tyres. My son went up to the roof, to look for his younger brother and was hit in the stomach by a bullet from across. 
2981
2982Ranjan: But how did the riots start? There had been tension, which peaked on the 19th. 
2983
2984But riots only lead to greater segregation - how will that help to bring about peace?
2985
2986I've lived in this town since '55 - and I've never known the Hindus to start the riots. There people there say that if they wanted to kill Hindus, they have Hindu neighbours. Why should they have fired on these houses?
2987
2988Well- why here, why not there – actually - one can't think of reasons off-hand. 
2989
2990Dr. Savitri Singh: We used to say the British instigated riots. But who's responsible now? Ranjan: Did the riots influence the Corporation elections? Dr. Harpal Singh: The Muslim League won 6 of the 58 seats without much campaigning. The BJP won 13 and claims it'd have won more, but for infighting. And I believed secular forces here were strong - which they are, but they're divided. 
2991
2992HINDU UNITY FOR NATIONAL STRENGTHHindu, Muslim,
2993
2994communalism, violence, riots -A poet of this town says - “Who waits these days. . . for night to fall? What does not happen by day?”Some want their faith to be the nation's identity. From under the highway flows the Gangnahar. Here Usman and the others were shot and dumped. Many people must have seen the corpses float by - Why did they keep quiet? After the riots, the same poet wrote -“In this unfamiliar town, keep making friendsHearts may not meet, but keep making friends”
2995
2996For centuries we've gazed at the moon and stars. But to see our own Earth from space has been possible only in our time. This view, a gift of modern science, can transform our thinking. Seen thus, our world seems so closely knit. But a few moments can destroy it all. One country plans a ring of weapons in space. Yet today the work of any country or person in the arts or in science belongs to all humans. After such a vision of the Earth do the fetters of caste, community, language have any meaning?
2997
299817. Towards the end of the last episode we have a conversation with Professor Yash Pal. He makes the point that if you import technology without critically thinking about it, then you bring in not just technology but also the way of functioning, the way of life that accompanies it. This could influence your society to be just like theirs. It can also create great segmentation and great divides within society. At that point we were yet to realize that as a nation we could be competent in certain areas, like electronics and software, and these are in fact the core of most technology today and far more flexible that older modes of industry and manufacturing. Then Professor Yash Pal was attempting to make an important point that we have to adopt new technologies and new ways of flexible thinking into our own, not just take the whole factory model and copy yourself into that
2999
300018. Professor Yash Pal talks about how decisions are being made to help business rather than help people. Here is gives an example of phone technology that costs Rs. 30,000 and uses copper, and says we can’t afford that. He says we should INSAT satellite technology with receivers and antaennes in each village, so that everyone can have something like a phone. But he says we don’t do that because that is not how it is being done elsewhere. Professor Yash Pal’s concern is with black box technology, or technology whose secrets are kept inside a black box and we don’t solve our own problems unless we learn to do it ourselves. Years later, the open source movement would have similar ideas about the development of software. 
3001
3002Twenty five years later India has gone completely the other way and has totally bought into black box technology – we used to be a nation of people who repaired their own mixies and toasters, and now all that is vanishing, including ordinary electricians and their shops on the road. 
3003
300419. BKC ends with a few last worlds about thinking, arguing and moving ahead. The agenda is to shape the future of the country, and not shaping it as per the plans of someone else but in our own way. All that emphasis on self-reliance has disappeared and we have turned into one big market place, and have become passive consumers in that market place. 
3005
3006When we look at Earth from afar we know we're all one. And we know that the basic molecules are the same for all life - even for this tree and its leaves. 
3007
3008As the films neared completion we met Prof Yashpal of the UGC, who had been Chairman of our Advisory Committee
3009
3010Maitreyi: Our attempt in these films has been to understand the role of our history and science in shaping us. So today, what do you think -?Prof. Yashpal: We saw pictures taken by the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite - few satellites of such quality exist, but we made one. We've launched rockets – Agni, Prithvi, SLV, made strides in atomic energy, electronics. We're known, at home and abroad, for our skill in writing computer software. Our work in material science is highly reputed. But we can't get drinking water to our villages, our light sockets don't work!Raghu: Could one reason be that we imitate the West?Prof Yashpal: If big machine come in, they bring not only their technology, but also their way of functioning. This could influence our society to be like theirs. But this can happen in very few places in India - it creates segmentation. We're yet to realise that areas we're competent in – electronics, software -these are the soul of today's technology and more flexible than the old technology. 
3011
3012Amrita: Are there examples of such adaptability?Prof Yashpal: A phone link is Rs. 30, 00. We can't afford that - yet we can have today's communication technology. Why don't we choose to have communication for each village, not each home? If we install a small antenna in each village, our INSAT is adequate, and ready for the job. We don't do it like that because others don't. It's this thinking about science in a sociological way that we don't do. If we do, other developing nations will too. 
3013
3014Amrita: We've made rockets and reactors - but do these achievements go beyond their own fields?
3015
3016Prof Yashpal: If we'd bought a rocket we'd follow instructions and launch it. It would just be a 'black box'. Doing it yourself means you can take it apart and use your knowledge to make other things you need. So you're in control of technology, not its slave. And this identity - that we're multidimensional, we're from many places, we have many languages, many religions – this is good, not bad. And through our long history, all who came, even the British, we took from them and gave to them. All this formed a nation, which today is ready to move ahead, think, argue, which says that in the future, too, we'll shape this country not by someone else's plan, but in our own way. 
3017----------------------------------------