Indian Journal of History of Science, 49.4 (2014) 443-456 THE MAKING OF A CLASSIC: THE CONTEMPORARY SIGNIFICANCE OF P.C. RAY’S HISTORICAL APPROACH Dhruv Raina* (Received 10 June 2014) Abstract Amongst the histories of science produced in early twentieth century India, P. C. Ray’s History of Hindu Chemistry, has acquired the status of a classic. This paper explores, as part of a more detailed study, the nineteenth century histories and historiography of chemistry as presented in the works of Thomson, Hoefer and Kopp, that shaped the writing of Ray’s History. More specifically, it seeks to identify the historiographic elements and contexts of nineteenth century chemistry that Ray drew upon and subsequently improvised in order to insert the history of Indian alchemy and chemistry within the mainstream narrative of the histories of science of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Key words: Alchemy, Chemical revolutions, History of chemistry, Iatrogenic chemistry 1. Introduction never “I am reading”’ (Calvino, 1986). This does not answer the question as much as postpones the Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, founder of response. For in order to become a classic a work the Indian school of modern chemistry, published must simultaneously be both relevant and the first volume of a landmark work called History outdated; and the context of relevance constantly of Hindu Chemistry (hereafter History) in 1902, changes with historical context, and as the that went on to become a classic in the field. The philosopher of science Gaston Bachelard so book has been the subject of scholarship and eloquently argued with the evolution not only of discussion among historians as well as historians theory but with the constellations of knowledge. of science and I myself return to it after a period How else is one to understand in a more recent of sixteen years (Raina, 1997). What is it that context the Nobel Laureate and theoretical compels readers and scholars to revisit an author’s astrophysicist S. Chandraekhar’s preoccupation historical magnum opus? How are the with Newton’s Principia (Chandrasekhar, 2013). compulsions of the reader related to the process In other words returning to Calvino: “The classics of the canonization or the making of a classic? are books that exert a particular influence, both This essay does not attempt to answer these when they refuse to be eradicated from the mind questions. where they conceal themselves in the folds of However, the Italian writer Italo Calvino memory, camouflaging themselves in the in his book on The Uses of Literature points out collective or individual consciousness” to some of the features of a work considered a (Calvino,1986). classic: ‘The classics are the books of which we What does it mean to speak of the usually hear people say, “I am rereading …”, and simultaneous ‘out-datedness’ of a classic and its * Zakir Husain Center for Educational Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067; Email: [email protected] 444 INDIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY OF SCIENCE extended relevance? Histories of Ayruveda and being a metaphor for a frame or a discourse beyond Indian alchemy anchored in recently discovered which one cannot pass. These earlier readings sources, and newer frames of interpretation confer were understandably strongly entrenched in issues on History a certain out-datedness if not of cognitive justice (Visvanathan, 1999), the irrelevance. Thus in an authoritative work on the attempts to engage with questions of the decline Siddha Traditions published at the end of the last of the sciences in India, or of the non-emergence century David Gordon White pointed towards a of modern science (Raina, 2003). “amplified scholarly error promulgated by Prafulla More than a decade after the publication Chandra Ray…”, and subsequently in the works of History Ray as a practicing modern chemist of renowned Indologists, and that was reiterated reviewing the progress of chemistry in Bengal throughout the century by scholars. The error arose reflected upon his historical magnum opus where from a faulty manuscript that Ray consulted and he had devoted a chapter to discussing the decline attributed its authorship to Nāgarjuna (White, of the scientific spirit in India. He writes: 1996, p. 160); which went to determine Ray’s “…I lamented that the spirit of inquiry conclusion that the early Tantric treatises were of had died out amongst a nation naturally Buddhist origin (White, 1996, p. 104). But the prone to speculation and metaphysical remedying of this scholarly error has not in any subtleties. Little did I dream then that in way eroded the merit of Ray’s history, based as it the course of a decade or so I should have was in a close reading of relevant Sanskrit to revise the estimate I then formed of the capacities of my own countrymen and manuscripts and texts. The continued relevance chronicle that a bright chapter is about to of Ray’s work arises from the issues concerning dawn in our life history” (Ray, 1918, scholars about the nature of Indian alchemy and p.45). its relation to chemistry, the issues concerning the For him too, the historical project and the circulation of Tantric knowledge not just about spread of modern chemistry in India contributed alchemy but medical practices, and in an area so to dispelling his image of the nation as predisposed little discussed it offers us one of the early to speculation and metaphysical reflection. The discussions of the Needham question in the South historical project provided a diagnosis of the past Asian context – even before Needham framed the and offered cautionary lessons for the question in the form known to us today. The latter contemporary practice and development of of course is nested with current debates on modern chemistry. One has to go back to the counterfactual, under determinationist and over beginnings of this article on chemistry in modern determinationist theories of history and debates Bengal to pin down the intent of Ray’s historical on modernity and social theory. digression. The powerful presence of History over a Squarely locating the identity of modern century amidst the relevant classics of the histories chemistry or what he calls “Scientific Chemistry” of science in South Asia could be comprehended in the work of Lavoisier, he feels that his argument in terms of this hypertextual density linked up with can only be understood in the light of the education the fact that it does provide practicing Indian of Bengali youth in the first half of the nineteenth chemists with an anchor for their own historical century: and cultural bearings. In disciplinary academic “…for the first 60 years or more the communities, re-readings are as much prompted intellectual pabulum of the Bengali by the identification of a scotoma that obscured youths was furnished by Shakespeare and the earlier readings of historians, the scotoma Milton, Bacon and Locke and Hume and HISTORICAL NOTE: THE MAKING OF A CLASSIC 445 Gibbon. It is barely two decades since decline of the sciences in India that in turn Bengal has seriously taken to original disrupted any participation in the exciting journey investigations in the fruitful field of of scientific discovery. The appeal to the past was chemistry” (Ibid., p.40) not so much about revival as to legitimate the Clearly, the moment of transition relates contemporary pursuit of science. Speaking of the to the introduction of science courses in the progress of chemistry in early twentieth century university towards the end of the 19th century – Bengal he would again remind his readers: courses that had been neglected to the exclusion “In my History of Hindu Chemistry I have of instruction in the humanities. devoted a chapter to the discussion of Returning to the landmark history of some of the causes which brought about chemistry authored by P.C. Ray, there are some the decline of scientific spirit in India, and how, during the period of intellectual new questions that I would like to examine. The stagnation which set in, our unhappy land work entitled History of Hindu Chemistry has was rendered morally unfit for the birth often been construed as, whether consciously or of a Boyle, a Descartes or a Newton. We not, inaugurating a discourse on Hindu Science hope we have slept off the torpor of ages and that it will be ours once more to and inadvertently creating an intellectual space for extend the bounds of knowledge”. (Ray, Hindu nationalism. This possibly arises from too 1918, p.24) quick and non-contextualized readings of passages The lament about India’s recent history is such as the following: certainly about decline and social inequality but “In that morning of ancient history, the this as much prefigures a variant of the Needham world looked forward to India for light question itself grounded in a comparative history and guidance, for knowledge of the of science – but more of the Acharya’s method accurate sciences such as algebra and chemistry as shown in my History of later. Is one not over-interpreting Ray here and Hindu Chemistry, for personal and social stretching the reading too far? Again while purity, for sacrifice and abstinence, for reviewing the progress of modern chemistry over plain living and high thinking. Now, a period of forty years in Bengal he would begin thanks to the cumulative effect of by pointing out where his own disquiet began: centuries of social inequalities and oppression, of the degradation of the “Thirty years ago, while a student at condition of women and of large sections Edinburgh, I began to notice that original of the people, and the walls of differences contributions by Japanese students of raised between man and man by custom Science had become a prominent feature and tradition, India now lies at the feet of in the Journals of the London and Berlin nations powerless and helpless.