Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud

41. Gernet, Op. cit., page 92.

42. Thapar, Op. cit., pages 143–146. Gernet, Op. cit., page 96.

43. Mukerjee, The Culture and Art of India, Op. cit., pages 269–271.

44. Ibid., pages 267ff.

45. Thapar, Op. cit., pages 161ff.

46. S. N. Das Gupta, ‘Philosophy’, in Basham (editor), Op. cit., pages 114ff.

47. Das Gupta, Op. cit., page 118.

48. Mukerjee, Op. cit., pages 255ff.

49. Thapar, Op. cit., page 162.

50. Basham (editor), Op. cit., page 119. Thapar, Op. cit., page 185.

51. Boyer, A History of Mathematics, Op. cit., page 207.

52. Basham (editor), Op. cit., page 147.

53. Tamil poems of the first four centuries AD make frequent references to Yavanas, Westerners familiar with Hellenic science and Roman technology. As was mentioned earlier, this word is seen by some as derived from ‘Ionian’. Basham (editor), Op. cit., page 151 and W. W. Tam, The Greeks in Bactria and India, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1951.

54. Basham (editor), Op. cit., page 154.

55. As discussed earlier (Chapter 12, note 87), the actual word ‘sine’ emerged through a mistranslation of the Hindu name, jiva.

56. Boyer, Op. cit., page 210. See also: Thapar, Op. cit., page 155.

57. Boyer, Op. cit., page 198.

58. Ibid., page 212.

59. D. E. Smith, History of Mathematics, New York: Dover, 1958, volume 1, page 167.

60. Joseph Needham et al., Science and Civilisation in China, volume 3, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1954, page 11n.

61. Basham (editor), Op. cit., page 157.

62. Boyer, Op. cit., page 215.

63. Ibid., page 216. The mathematics of India have influenced the whole world. But Westerners should never forget that, historically, India’s international influence has been primarily on the countries to the east of her. In particular, Sanskrit literature, Buddhism and Hinduism, in their various guises, have helped shape south-east Asia. In terms of sheer numbers of people affected, certainly up to the medieval period, India’s influence on the world is second to none. Hindu doctors believed that life began in the ‘primal waters’, that the appearance of people (their physiognomy) recalled the appearance of different gods, and that fever was due to demons, as was indigestion, the commonest cause of illness. Basham (editor), Op. cit., page 148. Health was maintained by the proper balance of the three humours – phlegm, gall and wind (or breath), which depended on diet (blood was added later, as a fourth humour). The lungs were believed to transport water through the body and the navel was the ultimate source of the blood vessels. Hindus had a vast pharmacopoeia based on a theory that certain essences of herbs and foods corresponded to the humours in differing proportions. Honey was believed to have healing powers and was associated with amrita, the ‘elixir of immortality’. Ibid., page 149. There was, interestingly, no conception of brain disease – consciousness was centred on the heart. Dropsy, consumption, leprosy, abscess, certain congenital diseases and a number of skin complaints were recognised and described. The name of the Hindu god of medicine was Asvin and the best-known physician was Charaka, who described many real and not-so-real conditions. For example, he gave the name Ayurveda to the science of longevity. Ibid., page 150. All illnesses were seen as having an ethical element, resulting in some way from a moral lapse. There was a specialist tradition of elephant medicine.

64. S. A. A. Rizvi, ‘The Muslim ruling dynasties’, in Basham (editor), Op. cit., pages 245ff.

65. Ibid., pages 281ff.

66. Basham (editor), Op. cit., page 284.

67. Mukerjee, Op. cit., pages 311–327. Thapar, Op. cit., pages 306–307, explores Sufism’s links to mainstream Islam and its role in non-conformism and rationalism.

68. Mukerjee, Op. cit., pages 298–299.

CHAPTER 14: CHINA’S SCHOLAR-ELITE, LIXUE AND THE CULTURE OF THE BRUSH

1. Valerie Hansen, The Open Empire, New York: Norton, 2000, pages 171–174. Our word ‘China’ is derived from transliteration of Qin, the Chinese empire of the third century BC.

2. Needham et al., Science and Civilisation in China, Op. cit., page 134. Wilkinson, Chinese History: A Manual, Op. cit., page 844.

3. Janet Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony: The World System, AD 1250–1350, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1989, page 316.