This paper explores the Central Hindu College (C.H.C.) of Benares as a notable example showcasing that modern science was not merely transplanted into colonial India as a Western import but was redefined and integrated within the Indian cultural and intellectual traditions. The study delves into the educational philosophy of the college's founder, Annie Besant, and particularly her approach to combining science and technical education with moral education embedded in the teachings of the Hindu religion to create an educational system that catered to the needs of Indian society under British rule. The paper highlights the intellectual exchanges at C.H.C., where traditional Hindu scientific knowledge, especially its mathematical and medical learning, was interwoven with modern scientific education, reflecting a broader trend of cultural nationalism and revivalism. A special focus is given to the early years of science education at C.H.C., particularly the achievements of its chemistry department, which thrived due to the theosophical underpinnings of the college. Besant's interest in occult chemistry—a subject that intrigued even contemporary scientists—is also examined, adding a layer of complexity to the understanding of how science was perceived at the college. Furthermore, the discourse of technical education, which recognizes its intrinsic relationship with industrial development, is also discussed. This discourse was reflected in the pages of the college magazine, illustrating the broader ambitions of C.H.C to contribute to the economic and industrial development of India by establishing a Technical Institute. This study thus addresses the significant gap in understanding concerning how modern science, often viewed as a Western import, was reinterpreted and integrated within the cultural and intellectual traditions of colonial societies like India. The study is particularly relevant as it contributes to a global understanding of how national institutions established in colonies mediated modern science. The findings hold significant implications for comparative studies on the institutionalization of modern science in other Western colonies across Asia, Africa, and South America. By situating the C.H.C. within the broader discourse of science, religion, and industrialization, this study provides a framework for exploring the science and technical institutions established in the colonies of European nations and the impact of modern science in diverse colonial contexts.

Tithinirṇaya is a celebrated astronomical text of the Mādhva tradition, intended primarily to assist in computing the appropriate days for observing a religious fast. For this purpose, it prescribes a procedure to obtain the tithi at sunrise for an observer located at latitude (φ) near 12.780. This work supplies a translation of the text along with mathematical and geometric rationales for the astronomical algorithms presented therein, which are either inadequate or missing in prior publications. The work also investigates the disputed authorship of the text and briefly remarks upon its religious applications.

In this paper, I analyze the Buddhist humoral theory primarily presented in the suttas of the Pāli Canon through a comparative study with other medical theories developed within the Indo-European tradition, specifically Hippocratic and Āyurvedic medicine. The aim is to trace possible historical developments of a humoral conception that originates from an Indo-European duality between fire and water, with these elements serving as the original core of humoral theory. The text therefore offers a detailed examination of the mechanisms of the three humours in the medical theory as articulated in the Pāli Canon, and draws parallels with Āyurveda and, where possible, with Greek medicine. In Hippocratic medicine, the fundamental elements πῦρ and ὕδωρ are possibly recognized as remnants of an ancient Indo-European binary concept, a concept also preserved in Āyurvedic theory through the universal principles of Agni and Soma, which classify the properties of foods and characteristics of diseases. Can we find similar traces of such a classification in Buddhist humours? By exploring this question, we aim to outline in greater depth the role of humors in the Pāli suttas, enriching our understanding of the archaic medical theory that these suttas bear witness to.

The Ma‘dan al-šifā’-i Sikandar-šāhī is an extensive Persian handbook of Ayurvedic medicine made for Miyān Bhuwa ibn Ḫawāṣṣ Ḫān, a vizir of Sultan Sikandar Lodī (r. 1489-1517) to whom the book was dedicated. Miyān Bhuwa allocated considerable resources to achieving this translation project and hired scholars to translate the many parts of Ayurvedic books used to compile the Persian text. This article explores the reasons behind the production of the Ma‘dan al-šifā’ and proposes a new reading of certain features of this book. It enquires into its authorship and suggests that Miyān Bhuwa most likely only assembled the translations made from Ayurvedic texts. It discusses the epistemic and the practical issues raised in the preface, which criticizes the adequacy of Greco-Arabic thought in the Indian environment and the style of Ayurvedic texts, as well as the parallels with the Ṭoḍarānanda, a Sanskrit encyclopedia written in the late 16th century. The last part of the article looks at the conceptual structure of the Ma‘dan al-šifā’ and how the Sanskrit sources and their models shaped the organization of the sections of the Persian book. Moreover, it suggests that the overall framework of the book relied on the overlap of models of presentation of medical knowledge, a device meant to negotiate between the models of the Sanskrit sources and those of the Muslim readers.

In the seventeenth century, the astronomer Haridatta of Mewar, Rājasthān, produced a table text named the Jagadbhūṣaṇa (epoch Śaka 1560, or 1638 CE). This table text provided calendar makers with a complete set of data and associated procedures for the computation of the annual calendar known in Sanskrit as a pañcāṅga. The tables are huge and represent an enormous computational effort, and the astronomical structure that underlies them is somewhat akin to the Babylonian Goal Year texts and similar cyclic schemes set out by Ptolemy and al-Zarqālī. The accompanying text consists of around one hundred and thirty verses organised into five chapters. This article is the first in a series that presents the Sanskrit text of the Jagadbhūṣaṇa along with a translation and a detailed technical commentary of the text and analysis of the associated tabular material, chapter by chapter. In the opening chapter, Haridatta begins the work with a lengthy encomium to his patron, Mewar Rajput Jagatsiṃha, before describing the procedures by which the true longitudes and motions of the sun and the moon can be determined using the accompanying tabulated data.

Kaṇakkatikāram is the title of elementary mathematical treatises that focus on measurements, calculation techniques and practical-recreational word problems. These treatises enjoyed substantial distribution in medieval and colonial Tamil Nadu and Kerala (Parameswara Iyer 1990, Vol. 2, 524-527). In this paper we will describe these treatises based on Malayalam manuscripts. We will discuss their content, linguistic and stylistic form, context of use, relation to actual professional practices, the cultural values that they express, and the political-economic reality that they reflect. Since the Tamil versions have already been analyzed in Senthil Babu (2022), here we focus on aspects that complement his analysis and on features that are unique to, or more salient in, the Malayalam versions.