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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Attempt a critical essay on the Indian Science and Civilisation in the light of Alberuni’s writings. What merits and drawbacks, do you find in his account?

  • UPSC 2003
  • Cultural Traditions in India, 750-1200

Alberuni's Kitab al-Hind, composed in the early eleventh century following the Ghaznavid raids into northwestern India, is the earliest sustained attempt by an outsider to document Indian science and civilization on the subcontinent's own intellectual terms rather than through travellers' anecdote. Its value and its limitations turn out to spring from the same source: a…

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What the full answer covers

  • Alberuni's Documentation of Indian Science
  • Astronomy
  • Mathematics and Metrology
  • Chemistry, Medicine, and Trigonometric Knowledge
  • Alberuni's Reading of Indian Civilization More Broadly
  • Merits of the Account
  • …and 2 more sections, with a conclusion

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