Indian Knowledge-Systems (IKS) on the Eve of Colonialism is an internationa collaborative research project, which draws on the talents of ten scholars from five countries to examine the nature of scientific and scholarly knowledge and the social existence of scholars and scientists in South Asia during the period from 1550 (the approximate date of two innovative thinkers, one in north India, one in the south) to 1750 (the approximate date of the consolidation of British power in the region). This large problematic has been narrowed by three limits, each with its own particular logic: (1) Eight disciplines, chosen for their centrality to traditional scientific culture or for their uncommon popularity during the period in question, are targeted for study: language philosophy, logic-epistemology, hermeneutics, literary theory, law, astronomy, medicine, and ritual science; (2) In order to gain a better understanding of the variety of social and political contexts for precolonial science, knowledge production in the eight disciplines are to be examined in four distinct regional centers: Delhi/Varanasi; Navadvip (Bengal)/Mithila; Thanjavur/Madurai; Maharashtra; (3) The science that found expression in Sanskrit, the premier language of learning outside the Persianate order, is considered.
After conducting a systematic census of manuscripts and published works in the disciplines, team members select manuscripts preserved in South Asia (and to a lesser degree Europe and the U.S.) for collection and archival preservation. Prosopographical data from unpublished sources as well as from published editions and all relevant secondary scholarship is sifted and entered into a database. This is a version of FileMaker Pro modified for networked data entry and for specific project needs. A small number of major texts are chosen for study according to a uniform analytic matrix. These address, among other things: key problematics; principal disciplinary positions; tenets of the author or school in question; dominant modes of argument, evidence, and method. On the basis of the census of texts, the bio-biographical database, and text-analyses, team members plan a book of essays on the character of Indian scientific and scholarly knowledge and its social setting. Both the database and the manuscript archives (with links to the database) are to be available to the public on the IKS Website, in hopes that the database can be enriched even beyond the limits of the IKS project, to become a key tool of Indian studies. Comparative histories of Indo-Persian and eventually European science are initiatives built into the logic and structure of the IKS project.
