Role of Experiments in the Progress of Science: Lessons from our History

TL;DR

The paper examines the historical role of experiments in Indian science, illustrating how the decline of experimental practice contributed to the stagnation of Indian scientific progress from the 9th century onwards.

Contribution

It highlights the importance of experimental investigations in scientific development and shows how their decline led to the stagnation of Indian science and civilization.

Findings

Experimental investigations were central to Indian scientific progress.

The decline of experiments coincided with the stagnation of Indian science.

External factors worsened the decline but were not the primary cause.

Abstract

I shall discuss the history of Indian astronomy, Aurveda (life science), chemistry and metallurgy to illustrate how downgrading experiments from scientific learning lead to the decline of ancient Indian science and civilization. We shall see that in the glorious period of ancient Indian civilization, lasting up to the 9th century, there was close interaction between experimental investigations and theoretical analyses in each of these sciences. This was further augmented by two-way interactions with the other advanced civilizations of that time. But both these interactions came to an end around 9th century, leading to the stagnation and decline of Indian science and civilization over the next thousand years. This was the cause rather than the consequence of its subjugation by external invaders, though it was no doubt aggravated by the latter.