David Pingree and G. Jan Meulenbeld have made us aware of the enormous volume and the astonishing diversity of Sanskrit literature on Jyotihsastra and Ayurveda respectively through their monumental works, Census of the Exact Science and History of Indian Medical Literature. Literature on other scientific subjects, though not so stupendous, is still very large. This rich diversity of Sanskrit scientific literature is reflected in the papers presented in Section 8 on Scientific Literature of the 13th World Sanskrit Conference, held at Edinburgh from July 10th to 14th, 2006 which are collected in this volume. These ten papers cover a wide spectrum of areas like astronomy, mathematics, divination, alchemy, gemmology, musicology and perfumery. They are ‘The Notion of Proof in Indian Science’ by K. RAMASUBRAMANIAN; ‘A Comparative Study of the Procedures of three Astronomers’ by S. BALACHANDRA RAO; ‘Why did Sanskrit Mathematics ignore Asakrt Methods’ by KIM PLOFKER; ‘Yantraraja at Edinburgh’ by SARMA; ‘The Muhurtalaksana’ by AMRIT GOMPERTS; ‘Nadi Divination and Indian Astrology’ by MARTIN GANSTEN; ‘Beliefs, Aspirations and Accomplishments of the Medieval Indian’ by VIJAYA DESHPANDE; ‘Ratnasastra in Kautilya’s Arthasastra’ by GYULA WOJTILLA; ‘The Body of the Musician’ MAKOTO KITADO; and ‘The Art and Science of Perfumery’ by JAMES MCHUGH.

Papers of the 12th WSC (Helsinki) comprising Vols. 2, 3.2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, and 11.1 already published

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About the Author(s)

S. R. Sarma was formerly professor of Sanskrit at Aligarh Muslim University; after retirement he has been the editor of the Indian Journal of History of Science and visiting professor at Kyoto University, Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, and Harvard University. The focus of his research is on the history of mathematics, astronomy and astronomical instruments in India. His recent publications include The Archaic and the Exotic: Studies in the History of Indian Astronomical Instruments (2008)