User:Kishorekumar 62/Subbarayappa B. V.

Dr Bidare Venkatasubbaiah Subbarayappa is a doyen of the historians of science and civilization in India. His writings have demonstrated a continuing tradition of scientific thought and culture in India from almost prehistoric times through the vedic period unto the classical Siddhantic period, and then the modern period. Subbarayappa played a significant role in the emergence of studies in the history of science as an important discipline by itself, to be undertaken with as much rigor as any other discipline of science. He was appointed as the first project coordinator and Member Secretary of the newly established National Commission for History of Science, a part of the Indian National Science Academy, in the year 1967. He was instrumental, under the direction of the Commission, in starting the Indian Journal of History of Science, one of the flagship journals of India, and was its first associate editor. He played a significant role in fostering studies in the history of science in India by launching several programs in different institutions across India.

Early life and academic career
Born in 1925 in Bidare, a small town in Hassan District of Karnataka in south India, Subbarayappa had his early education in Madhugini, Tumkur district and moved to Bangalore subsequently for obtaining his bachelors degree in chemistry with a gold medal in his final honors from the Central College, Bangalore. Subsequently he obtained his Masters degree from the University of Mysore in 1949.

His first job was as a lecturer in chemistry at Vijaya College, Bangalore, where he soon rose to the position of the head of the department. Having taught chemistry for about seven years in the college, Subbarayappa decided to change gears to pursue his research career at the Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore in the year 1956. There he was introduced to the history of science through his visits to the Oriental Research Institute. It is then, Subbarayappa seems to have developed a serious interest in taking up studies in the history of Indian science, though the subject was in its nascent stage in India. In the subsequent years, he played a significant role in bringing it to prominence.

Subbarayappa obtained his doctorate from the University of Mysore in 1964 for his thesis Studies in Indian Concepts in Physical Sciences which is regarded as one of the first few Ph.D. theses on the history of Indian science. Pursuing his studies further in the history of science in India, Subbarayappa tried to understand the relation between science in India, its cultural foundation, and the civilizational quest for knowledge that India has had all through the ages.

In 1963, Subbarayappa moved to Delhi to join the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. He served this institute for about four years before joining the Indian National Science Academy. By this time, the great passion that he had developed for promoting studies in the history of science in India had gained sufficient momentum to give him the necessary strength and ability to create avenues as well as establish centers in order to provide an appropriate ambience for scholars to pursue studies in this area in the coming years.

Subbarayappa retired as Executive Secretary of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi.

Contributions to the promotion of studies in the history of science in India
The following are some of the major initiatives that Subbarayappa undertook which gives us a glimpse of the continuous efforts that he had put throughout his career towards creating an awareness among the people of India about its scientific heritage and the civilizational genius:

1967 Subbarayappa was appointed as the first Project Coordinator and Member Secretary of the newly established National Commission for History of Science in India in the Indian National Science Academy. He played a key role, under the direction of the Commission, in starting the Indian Journal of History of Science and was its first associate editor.

1969 - 71 Planned and organized the first National Seminar on Indian Scientific Heritage in 1969. Subsequently played a key role in planning and publishing the first edition of A Concise History of Science in India which he edited with D. M. Bose and S. N. Sen. This volume was the first publication of the National Commission and the contributions of Subbarayappa towards this both as an author of a few articles and also as the overall project coordinator were significant.

1973 Organized the International Seminar on Abū Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Al-Bīrūnī (b. 973) in order to commemorate the millennium year of his birth.

1974 Organized a Seminar on Āryabhaṭa (b. 476), the famous Indian astronomer and mathematician, keeping in mind the 1500th anniversary to come in a couple of years. On this occasion, he planned to get the right scholars engaged in bringing out definitive editions of Āryabhaṭīya (with translations, mathematical notes, and commentaries) to be released in 1976 to commemorate the important contributions made by Āryabhaṭa.

1975 - 78 In order to keep up the momentum generated by international seminars and important landmark publications, with the approval of the National Commission and the University Grants Commission, Subbarayappa initiated steps for the promotion of the history of science in some major Indian Universities. He offered a course on the history of science for graduate students as a visiting professor at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, during 1977–78.

1978 - 83 As the Director of the Nehru Centre, Bombay, during his tenure from July 1978 to August 1983, Subbarayappa conceived of the Discovery of India project for a permanent exhibition on India through the Ages, which included highlights of the history of science in India. Furthermore, during the Festival of India in London (1981) organized by the Government of India and the U.K. Government, he was appointed as the academic adviser for the portrayal of the history of Indian sciences.

1982 - 85 Subbarayappa was commissioned by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan to establish a Centre for Studies in Science and Human Values in its Bangalore branch in the early 1980s. Though the Centre, currently called Gandhi Centre for Science and Human Values, was formally inaugurated at a much later date on November 4, 1989, Subbarayappa played a significant role in laying the seeds for it.

1985 - 89 Under the guidance of Subbarayappa, a Centre for History and Philosophy of Science (the first of its type in India) was set up in 1985 at the Indian Institute of World Culture, Bangalore. As Honorary Director of this Centre, projects aimed at studying iron and copper metallurgy in South India were sanctioned. Critical editions of unpublished manuscripts as well as preparation of source-books on indigenous traditions in navigation, paper technology, and decipherment of Indus script were undertaken. Summer programs on the history of science for college students, as well as essay competitions to generate interest among young students in the history of science were held from time to time. He also was instrumental in the organization of a National Seminar on History of Science in India in 1989 under the auspices of this Centre.

Compilation of excerpts from Indian astronomy
In the year 1985, Subbarayappa along with K V Sarma brought out a volume titled Indian Astronomy: A Source Book, which is a compilation of about 3000 verses culled out from various source works on Indian Astronomy. This volume consisting of 22 chapters and arranged in five parts serves as an handy reference for researchers working on Indian astronomy. Besides presenting quotations from various important astronomical works in Sanskrit (with a few exceptions), it also includes a lucid English translation for all those passages. A few short notes presented along with the six appendices provided in this volume are also extremely useful.

Decipherment of Indus script
It is well known that several seals and other inscribed objects (about 4,500) which have been unearthed by archaeologists related to the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) have remained enigmatic for more than a century. Besides the various animal forms, inscribed on over 1500 seals, other objects have defied any meaningful explanation so far. Broadly speaking, there are two views about the Indus script: one, that it represents a language and the other, that it is not of any language but could be symbolic of some ideas of those times, about which we have no clear idea whatsoever.

Having studied this problem for over four years, Subbarayappa has proposed a novel view that the basic Indus script forms (14 in number) were used as numerals of the decimal scale. He called the system of representation as Ciphered System and worked out the numerical values of each of the basic forms and their derivatives (over 400 of them). Adducing paleo-ethno-botanical evidence, and also encompassing other archaeological findings like the grains of barley, wheat, cotton seeds etc, Subbarayappa reasoned that the seals are in the nature of records of agricultural production and management, and that the script forms denote the quantities of agricultural products involved. Setting aside the issue of the reception of this hypothesis among scholarly circles, it must be mentioned that this hypothesis has opened up a new dimension to the studies on Indus script.

Studies on Indian inscriptions
It has been estimated that the number of Indian inscriptions in Kharoṣṭi,  Brāhmī,  Devanāgarī,  Tamil and other scripts which have been preserved, is about 1,50,000. Of them about 40,000 have been published with their studies by archaeologists and linguists. However, none of these studies had examined them for the records of eclipses. As one of his last research projects, Subbarayappa analyzed the published inscriptions, and by scanning about 13,000 of them, mostly in Sanskrit, he has brought to light the recordings of over 1200 eclipses (solar and lunar). This work undertaken by Subbarayappa is noteworthy as it reveals a continuous recording tradition of eclipses for over 1,500 years in keeping with the vibrant tradition of Indian mathematical astronomy.

Contributions towards Vol. IV of PHISPC
A wide interest on a variety of topics related to the history of science and the broad perspective that Subbarayappa had developed over the years, perhaps prompted the general editor of the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture (PHISPC) to assign the task of production of Volume IV on the fundamental Indian ideas of physics, chemistry, life sciences, and medicine to Subbarayappa. Subbarayappa produced the following four volumes within a span of 9 years:

Of the four volumes listed above, the first two volumes were edited by Subbarayappa, whereas the latter two were authored by him. Subbarayappa undertook the job of bringing out these volumes when he was in his late seventies and early eighties.

In the third volume titled Indian Perspectives on the Physical World, Subbarayappa provides an introduction to the fundamental Indian ideas of physics based on the study of the Sāṅkhya and Vaiśeṣika systems of Indian philosophy. Wherever necessary, he also presents a brief review of the relevant ideas in other cultures to facilitate the reader and enable him to have a better comprehension and appreciation of the subject. Quotations of the relevant Sanskrit passages from the source works are provided at the end of each chapter in the references section.

His volume on The Tradition of Astronomy in India: Jyotiḥśāstra is a resource book that brings out the various facets of the Jyotiḥśāstra, its origin, growth and development in India. The style of writing adopted by Subbarayappa has been such that, even an uninitiated person can read the volume and appreciate its contents. Commencing the volume with the social-cultural and religious setting in which the Jyotiḥśāstra evolved in India, he proceeds to explain the various aspects of the science without getting into overt technical details. In the last chapter titled On the Transmissions, he discusses at length the exchanges that took place between India and other civilizations, wherein he coherently presents detailed arguments — perhaps inspired by P. C. Sengupta — against the Babylonian-Greco-centric views presented by many other scholars.

Awards and distinctions
Dr. Subbarayappa was associated with several institutions during his long career and earned many distinctions.
 * Elected President (1998-2001) of the History of Science division of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science (under ICSU, Paris) - the first non-westerner to be so elected.
 * Recipient of the Copernicus Medal from the Polish Academy of Sciences (1973) on the occasion of the 500th birth anniversary of Copernicus.
 * Recepient of the Karnataka State Award (2008).
 * Awarded Honorary Doctorate (1999) by the University of Bologna, Italy, during the bicentenary of the celebrated scientist Luigi Galvani.
 * Recipient of R.C. Gupta medal for History of Science from the National Academy of Sciences, India, of which he is an elected Fellow.
 * Recipient of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Lectureship Award (Humanities) from the Asiatic Society, Kolkata.
 * Leader of Indian Delegation to the International Congress of History of Science in Berkeley, USA (1985); Hamburg, Germany (1989); Liege, Belgium (1993); and Mexico City (2001).
 * Invited founder-member of the International Society for Science and Religion, Cambridge, UK.

Publications
Subbarayappa was a prolific writer and produced several important treatises on the history of science, both as an independent author / editor, as well as in collaboration with others. His early writings have been in his own mother tongue - Kannada - and the latter ones in English.