Bhartiya Rasayanashastra or Indian chemistry holds significant historical and cultural importance and has its roots in ancient Indian texts. Ancient Indian chemists developed techniques for distillation, sublimation, purification, and synthesis, which laid the groundwork for later uses and advancements in all aspects including medicine, art forms, makeup, perfumery, textiles, colours, metallurgy etc. It played a very important role in India’s sustained prosperity for over 2000 years and was able to control 24% of the world’s GDP. Also, in Bharatiya Rasayanshastra, the concepts of “dravya,” “dhatu,” and “ras” are fundamental. Dravya encompasses a wide range of substances, including both physical and metaphysical entities, Dhatu refers to metals or minerals, particularly those used in chemical processes and Ras refers to the quintessential nature or essence of a substance.
About the Speakers:
Prof Vijay Shankar Shukla is a scholar of Vedic studies and Former Director of INGCA Varanasi Chapter. He completed his Doctorate of Philosophy in 1991 from the University of Allahabad and continued his academic activities at IGNCA since 1991. He was deeply involved with the project on ‘Documentation of Vedic recitation and rituals.’ In this connection, Prof Shukla has delivered many lectures on Vedic śākhās and the cognitive relationship of the śāstras and was also instrumental in documenting the major recordings of the available recensions of the Vedas.
Prof. Vikash Dubey is the Dean – R&D, IIT BHU. He has also taught at IIT Guwahati. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Florida State University, USA (January 2004 to September 2006. He has published over 155 articles in peer-reviewed Journal(s) and over 80 conference presentations/proceedings/invited talks. He has seven awarded and licensed USA patents as well as three Indian patent applications to his credit.
Dr. Anuradha Chaudhary is the Coordinator at the IKS Division of MoE at AICTE. She is an Assistant Professor at the Humanities and Social Sciences Departments at IIT Kharagpur for Sanskrit and Indian Psychology. A scholar in Vedic Psychology, she is also the founder of Ritambhara Yogashala and Takshashila Institute of Indian Studies.
