CBSE Class 11 Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India

Chapters: 9

1. Astronomy in India

Astronomy in India

Astronomy in India – Indian astronomers watched the Sun, Moon and planets for thousands of years to keep time and fix festival and farming dates. They divided the Moon's path into 27 nakshatras of 13°20′ each, defined a tithi as every 12° the Moon gains on the Sun, and built a lunisolar calendar that adds an extra month about every 3 years. Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Bhaskara II and the Kerala school computed eclipses and planet positions with mathematics. In the 1700s Jai Singh II built giant masonry instruments at Jantar Mantar. Today, telescopes, spacecraft and computers make predictions far more precise.

Chemistry in India

Indian Knowledge Systems – Indian knowledge systems (IKS) are the ideas, skills and methods developed in the Indian subcontinent over thousands of years in mathematics, astronomy, metallurgy, chemistry, medicine, architecture, language and the arts. Highlights include the place-value system with zero, rust-resistant iron, large-scale zinc distillation, crucible (wootz) steel, natural dyes with mordants, Ayurveda and surgery texts, Panini's grammar, and climate-smart design such as stepwells, jaalis and courtyard houses. Studying them means checking claims with evidence and connecting old ideas with modern science and design.

Introduction to Indian literature

Coming soon

Indian philosophical systems

Indian Philosophical Systems – Indian philosophy (darshana, "a way of seeing") asks what is real, how we know, and how to live well and become free from suffering. Six schools accept the authority of the Vedas (astika): Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta. Three do not (nastika): Buddhism, Jainism and Charvaka. Schools differ in the pramanas (valid ways of knowing) they accept, from perception alone (Charvaka) to six (Mimamsa, Advaita Vedanta). Each school defends its view by argument and debate.

Traditional environmental conservation

Traditional Ecological Knowledge: How Communities Care for Nature – Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is what a community learns about its land, water, plants and animals over many generations, by watching, doing and telling stories. Many communities used it to protect nature: sacred groves that are never cut, rules that protect trees and animals (like the Bishnoi), tanks and stepwells that store rain, resting fields and mixed crops, and closed seasons for fishing. Today scientists and governments work with communities, because this knowledge is local, tested over time and cheap. It must be respected, credited and used with the community's consent.

Ayurveda for life, health and well-being

Ayurveda: An Indian Knowledge Tradition of Health – Ayurveda means "knowledge of life". It is a traditional Indian system of health, over 2,000 years old, with classic texts by Charaka (medicine) and Sushruta (surgery). It has two aims: keep healthy people healthy and help sick people recover. It says everything is made of five elements, which in the body form three doshas: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Health is their balance. Ayurveda stresses a daily routine (dinacharya), a seasonal routine (ritucharya), and three supports of life: food, sleep and balanced conduct. Many of its habits match modern advice, but its medicines should be used only with a qualified practitioner, and serious illness needs a doctor.

Evolution of medical tradition in ancient India

History of Medicine – For hundreds of years (about 1000–1500) most doctors followed old ideas from ancient Greece: illness came from an imbalance of four humours, treated by bleeding and purging, with prayer and herbs. The Renaissance (1500s–1700s) brought careful dissection (Vesalius), the circulation of blood (Harvey) and the first vaccine (Jenner, 1796). In the 1800s germ theory (Pasteur, Koch) showed that microbes cause disease; surgery solved pain (anaesthetics), infection (antiseptics) and later bleeding (blood groups). In the 1900s antibiotics, X-rays, DNA science, wars, new technology and government public-health systems changed medicine again. Change was driven by individuals, science, technology, war, government and communication, and slowed by tradition, religion and lack of knowledge.

Mathematics in India

History of Mathematics – Mathematics grew over thousands of years in many places. People first counted with tally marks. Egypt and Babylon used geometry for land and building, and Babylon counted in 60s. Greek thinkers such as Thales, Pythagoras, Euclid and Hypatia turned geometry into proofs. India gave place value with zero, scholars in Baghdad built algebra, and the ideas reached Europe. Women and men from every continent have shaped maths, often against unfair barriers.

Theatre and drama

Indian Theatre: From the Natyashastra to the Street Play – Indian theatre has a very long history. The Natyashastra, an old Sanskrit book credited to Bharata, explains acting, music, dance, the stage and rasa, the feeling the audience enjoys. Acting uses four kinds of abhinaya: body (angika), voice (vachika), costume and make-up (aharya) and inner feeling (sattvika). Classical Sanskrit plays by Bhasa, Kalidasa and Shudraka were performed in playhouses. Folk forms such as Yakshagana, Jatra, Tamasha, Nautanki, Bhavai and Therukoothu mix song, dance and talk in open spaces close to the audience. Modern theatre brought picture-frame stages, Parsi theatre companies, the people's theatre movement and street plays (nukkad natak) on social issues.