Native collecting and natural knowledge (1798-1832): Raja Setfoji II of Tanjore as a 'centre of calculation'

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

Volumn 15, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 279-302

  Nair, Savithri Preetha ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 34347296959     PISSN: 13561863     EISSN: 14740591     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S1356186305005298     Document Type: Review

References (66)

1. J. Gascoigne, Joseph Banks and the English Enlightenment (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 32-35
2. For an excellent study of the role of Banks in the building of the Empire see J. Gascoigne, Science in the Service of Empire: Joseph Banks, the British State and the Uses of Science in the Age of Revolution (Cambridge, 1998)
3. For an account of the Banksian collecting network in India, see S. P. Nair, The Museum in Colonial India (1770-1936): a history of collecting, exhibiting and disciplining knowledge, unpublished PhD thesis (University of London, 2002), Chapter II. various colonial contexts has grown over the years
4. For a useful review see, D. W. Chambers, "Locality and Science: Myths of Centre and Periphery", in Lafuente et al., Mundializacion, pp. 606-609
5. R. Macleod (ed.), Nature and Empire. Science and the Colonial Enterprise, Osiris, Vol. 15 (Chicago, 2000), p. 3
6. See, for example, the papers presented at the first international conference in this direction, incorporating viewpoints of both metropolitan and colonial histories of science in P. Petitjean, C. Jami and A-M Moulin (eds.), Science and Empires: Historical Studies About Scientific Development and European Expansion (Dordrecht, 1992)
7. and Cultural Imperialism and Exact Sciences: German Expansion Overseas, 1900-1930 (New York, 1985)
8. Macleod, Nature and Empire, pp. 9-10
9. See, for example, David Turnbull, "Local Knowledge and Comparative Scientific Traditions", Knowledge and Policy, Fall/Winter, 1993-1994, 6, pp. 29-54
10. B. Latour, "Give me a Laboratory and I will raise the World", in K. Knorr-Cetina and M. Mulkay (eds), Science Observed (London, 1983), pp. 141-170
11. See Chambers, "Locality and Science", p. 616
12. Turnbull, "Local Knowledge", p. 32
13. For an application of the concept of 'centre of calculation' in the context of collecting and empire, see D. P. Miller, "Joseph Banks, Empire, and 'Centres of Calculation' in late Hanoverian London", in D. P. Miller and P. H. Reill (eds), Visions of Empire: voyages, botany, and representations of nature (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 21-37
14. See Latour, Science in Action, pp. 215-257
15. S. Sörlin, "National and International Aspects of Cross-Boundary Science: Scientific Travel in the 18th Century", in E. Crawford, T. Shinn and S. Sörlin (eds), Denationalizing Science: The Contexts of International Scientific Practice (Dordrecht, 1993), p. 45
16. For a pioneering essay on the notion of 'locality' in the imperial context, see R. Macleod, "On Visiting the "Moving Metropolis": Reflections on the Architecture of Imperial Science", in N. Reingold and M. Rothenberg (eds), Scientific Colonialism: A Cross-Cultural Comparison (Washington, 1987), pp. 217-249
17. See H.J. C. Larwood, "Science in India before 1850", British Journal of Educational Studies, 7, 1958-1959, pp. 62-76
18. R. Jayaraman, Sarasvati Mahal, Tanjore Saraswati Mahal Library (Tanjore, 1981), p. 11
19. DL, IOR: Home/Misc./571, pp. 183-213
20. For biographical information on the Kohlhoffs, see Elizabeth A Kohlhoff, Pastoral Symphony: The Family and Descendants of Johann Balthasar Kohlhoff (1989). Daniel Kohlhoff was employed as a writer in the service of Raja Serfoji and John Kohlhoff became Serfoji's librarian, preparing its first modern catalogue
21. For the Francke model of education see J. Storz, "Hauptbibliothek, Archiv und Naturalienkabinett der Franckeschen Stiftungen", in August Hermann Francke: Das Immanistische Erbe des grossen Eniehers (Halle, 1965), p. 105
22. For an account of her visit to the Tanjore Court, see, C. P. Clive, "Journal of a Voyage to the East Indies and during a residence there . . . ", BL: PWD/WD 4235
23. Buchanan was a lecturer at the Fort William College, Calcutta and considered a man of 'high reputation and learning'. Also see, TDR Vol. No. 3487B, letter dated 28 August 1806
24. R. Heber, An account of a journey to Madras and the Southern Provinces, 1826 (London, 1828), Vol. III, Chapter XXVII, pp. 456-457
25. Also see Thomas Robinson, Last Days of Bishop Heber (Madras, 1829), p. 162
26. See S. Das (ed.), Selections from the Indian journals, I, Calcutta Journal (Calcutta, 1963), p. 152
27. Also cited in C. A. Bayly, Empire and Information: Intelligence gathering and social communication in India 1780-1870 (Cambridge, 1996), p. 216
28. K. Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities: Paris and Venice, 1500-1800 (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 56-60
29. See J. H. Bunn, "The Aesthetics of British Mercantilism", New Literary History, 1980, pp. 303-320
30. See I. V. Peterson, "The cabinet of King Scrfoji of Tanjore: A European collection in early nineteenth-century India", Journal of the History of Collections, II, no. 1, 1999, pp. 71-93
31. TDR Vol. No. 3487B, letter dated Chetoobava, 4 May 1806, p. 153
32. For a history of the Serampore Mission, see, E. Daniel Potts, British Baptist Missionaries in India, 1793-1837: The History of Scramapore and its Missions (Cambridge, 1967)
33. Also see S. N. Sen, "The pioneering role of Calcutta in scientific and technical education in India", Indian Journal of History of Science, 29 (1), 1994, p. 43
34. See D. Bose, "Madhusudan Gupta", Indian Journal of History of Science, 29 (1), 1994, pp. 31-39
35. See, the introduction to Patrick Russell, Account of Indian serpents containing Descriptions and Figures (London, 1801), p. xiv
36. J. Anderson, Correspondence for the Extermination of Small-Pox (Madras, 1804). TDR Vol. No. 3484, letter dated Madras, 19 July 1805, and TDR Vol. No. 3482, letter dated 17 August 1805, p. 403
37. For an account of how smallpox vaccination was introduced into India in 1802-1805, see D. Arnold, Colonizing the Body (London, 1993). Chapter 3
38. Jayaraman, Sarasvati Mahal, p. 9
39. Reill, "The Legacy of the 'Scientific Revolution'", pp. 32-34
40. S. Schaffer, "Natural Philosophy" in G. S. Rousseau and R. Porter (eds), The Ferment of Knowledge: Studies in the Historiography of 18th century Science (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 50-60, 81-82
41. For Kleins biographical details see, H. Stansfield, "The Discovery of Classic Collections of Plants from Peninsular India (1780-1816)", Bulletin of the Liverpool Libraries, Museums and Arts Committee, Vol. 6 No. 3, 1957, pp. 19-42
42. TDR Vol. No. 3500 Letter dated Tranquebar, 30 April 1810, p. 117
43. Heber, Account, pp. 456-457
44. See D. Knight, "Communicating Chemistry: The Frontier between Popular Books and Textbooks in Britain during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century", in A. Lundgren and B. Bernsaude-Vincent (eds), Communicating Chemistry: Textbooks and their Audiences (Canton MA, 2000), pp. 187-189
45. Valentia, Travels and Voyages, pp. 353-363
46. N. Jardine, "Naturphilosophie and the Kingdoms of Nature", in N. Jardine, J. A. Secord and E. C. Spary (eds), Cultures of Natural History (Cambridge, 1996), p. 232
47. NHM: Z MSS John [Zoology Library]
48. NHM: Roxburgh Correspondence, Phillipps Mss 23679, letter dated 15 November 1789. Also see Anderson's note "On the Poison of Serpents", The Bee, 13 March 1793, p. 19
49. T. L. Hankin, Science and Enlightenment (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 150-155
50. BL, IOR: F/4/780, letter dated Salavanaikenpatnam, 26 June 1820, p. 15
51. Asiatic Journal, Vol. XII, July 1821, p. 92
52. DL, IOR: F/4/780, letter dated 3 February 1821, pp. 260-265
53. See V. Turner and E. Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture. Anthropological Perspectives (Oxford, 1978), p. 23
54. A. van Gennep, The Rites of Passage (trans. Monika Vizedom) (London, 1977)
55. Turner and Turner, Image and Pilgrimage, p. 35
56. In this context also see M. Rudwick, "Geological Travel and Theoretical Innovation: The Role of 'Liminal' Experience", Social Studies of Science, Vol. 26, No. I, Feb. 1996, pp. 143-159
57. T. J. Rama Rao and N. D. Gadre, "British Admirers of Maharaja Serfoji", The Journal of the Tanjore Sarasvati Mahal Library, Vol. XIV, No. 3, 1960, p. 5
58. See for example, D. Kumar, "Calcutta: The Emergence of a Science City (1784-1856)", Indian Journal of History of Science, 29 (1), 1994, pp. 1-20
59. For a study of Jai Singh's engagement with western astronomy, see A. Rahman, Maharaja Jai Singh II and Indian Renaissance (Delhi, 1987)
60. See also V. Sharma, Sawai Jai Singh and his Astronomy (Delhi, 1995)
61. J. Masselos, "The Discourse from the Other Side: Perceptions of Science and Technology in Western India in the Nineteenth century", in N. K. Wagle (ed.), Writers, Editors and Reformers: Social and Political Transformation of Maharashtra, 1830-1930 (Delhi, 1999), pp. 114-129
62. See Minault, "Sayyid Ahmad Dehlavi", p. 175
63. For an early 'Christian' biography of Ramachandra, see Edwin Jacob, A Memoir of Professor Yesudas Ramachandra of Dehli (Cawnpore, 1902)
64. The phrase 'ideology of certainty' has been used by M. C. Borba and O. Skovsmose in their essay on mathematical pedagogy, The Ideology of Certainty (Copenhagen, 1996)
65. For a study of Vedanayakam Shastri, see I. V. Peterson, "Tanjore, Tranquebar, and Halle: European Science and German Missionary Education in the Lives of Two Indian Intellectuals in the early Nineteenth Century", in R. E. Frykenberg (ed.), Christians and Missionaries in India: cross-cultural communication since 1500 (London, 2003), pp. 93-126
66. The Mexican 'enlightenment' experience was similar to this. See D. W. Chambers, "Period and Process in Colonial and National Science", in N. Reingold and M. Rothenberg (eds), Scientific Colonialism: A Cross-Cultural Comparison (Washington, 1987), pp. 297-321