Season 1, CHATROOM 18

Drawing the History of Indian Science

Cartoonist Arghya Manna is one of the few artists who portrays the history of Indian science using comics. We talk to him about creating art during Covid-19, and the Great Bengal Famine.

Time Markers (min:sec)

  • 00:10 – important programming note
  • 00:20 – intro to Arghya Manna
  • 1:30 – overview of the episode
  • 2:37 – the Great Bengal Famine
  • 3:40 –  Arghya’s approach to drawing famine
  • 5:30 – Amartya Sen’s approach to famine
  • 8:18 – Pata-chitrakars also participated
  • 9:30 –  Arghya’s artistic process and COVID19
  • 10:40 – His artistic inspirations – Joe Sacco, Sun Xun, William Kentridge
  • 13:13 – portraying less known figures in Indian science
  • 14:45 – lack of illustrations in ancient Indian science

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Reading List

The Body of the Artisan. press.uchicago.edu, https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo3618964.html. Accessed 12 May 2021.

Bayeux Tapestry – They Saw Stars – The University of Chicago Library. https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/they-saw-stars-art-and-astronomy/early-representations/bayeux-tapestry/. Accessed 12 May 2021.

Wujastyk, Dominik. “A Body Of Knowledge: The Wellcome Ayurvedic Anatomical Man And His Sanskrit Context.” Asian Medicine (Leiden, Netherlands), vol. 4, no. 1, Jan. 2009, pp. 201–48. PubMed Central, doi:10.1163/157342109X423793.

Hunter, William Wilson. Annals of Rural Bengal. Smith, Elder, 1872.

Music:

“Evening Fall (Harp)” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

“Starve” Noveller (freemusicarchive.com)

Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Noveller#contact-artist