March 5, 2012

Abstract

The natural products of India - botanical medicines, spices, rare woods and gems - were the focus of overland and ocean trade during the pre-modern era. Traders and travelers from all parts of the world came to India in search of commodities, and cultural and artistic influences of India along with commodities traveled to the pan Asian and European worlds with them. Direct encounter with Indian natural history especially influenced European Art, science, and literature during the pre-modern period. The lecture will draw on manuscripts, books and works of art from the 16-18^th centuries to highlight the influences of India on art, literature and science in Europe during the period when Shakespeare, Durer, Raphael, Milton and others reached out to the ‘Indies’ for inspiration in their works.

The natural products of India - botanical medicines, spices, rare woods and gems - were the focus of overland and ocean trade during the pre-modern era. Traders and travellers from all parts of the world came to India in search of commodities, as cultural and artistic influences were carried with the commodities to Asian and European worlds. Direct encounters with Indian natural history especially influenced European art, science, and literature during the pre-modern period. This lecture will draw on manuscripts, books and works of art from the 16th to 18th centuries to highlight the influences of India on the art, literature and science of Europe during the period when Shakespeare, Durer, Raphael, Milton and others reached out to the ‘Indies’ for inspiration in their works.

Annamma Spudich received her Ph.D. and pursued postdoctoral work in molecular cell biology at Stanford University, and then carried out cell biology research at Stanford for 25 years. Eight years ago she left basic science research at Stanford University to devote her intellectual energies to her life long interest in the history of Indian scientific traditions in the natural sciences. In 2003 Spudich was invited to curate an exhibit and organize a conference on the area of her interest at The Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University. The exhibit, “From Forreine Places All the Varietie of Herbes” and the conference “The Seeds of Culture” looked at the contribution of ethno-botany to modern science. She is a scholar in residence at the National Center for Biological Sciences, Bangalore where she curated a ground breaking exhibit on the influences of early Indian scientific knowledge in pre-modern Europe titled “Such Treasure and Rich Merchandize: Indian Botanical Knowledge in 16th and 17th Century European Books” which is the subject of her talk at Srishti. Her talk will be held at 3 pm on March 5th at N3 Meeting Room.  Tea and biscuits will be served at 4 pm.   

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