Sino-Indian History of Science – Two-Day Lecture Series
The Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems organised a two-day lecture series on the history of science between India and China, delivered by Prof. Bill M. Mak of the University of Science and Technology of China and Research Associate at the Needham Research Institute, Cambridge. Vice-Chancellor Prof. Yashavantha Dongre opened the series.
The first lecture examined how astronomical and astrological knowledge moved across Eurasia during the first millennium CE. Prof. Mak’s argument was specific: monks, merchants and travellers were the agents of this transmission, and the knowledge they carried was not passively received by Chinese scholars but actively reinterpreted within existing intellectual frameworks. He drew on Chinese, Sanskrit and Pali Buddhist texts, alongside materials from Nestorian, Zoroastrian and Manichean traditions.
The second lecture took a longer view, tracing over 2,500 years of intellectual and scientific exchange between India and China. By connecting historical patterns to present-day contexts, Prof. Mak asked what these two civilisations might contribute to each other going forward. Between 60 and 70 faculty members, students and staff attended across both days. The Q&A sessions were substantive.
