For this session of “10 Questions for the Historian of Science,” I interviewed Kenneth G. Zysk about his long career, his research, and the state of the history of science today. Kenneth is involved in the Paging the Heavens: Astral Manuscripts in the Kenneth G. Zysk Indological Manuscript Collection working group at ASTRA.
Ole Birk Laursen: What is your academic background?
Kenneth G. Zysk: I am Professor Emeritus of Indology and Indian Science in the Department of Cross-Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen.
Ole Birk Laursen: What is the topic of your research and how did you become interested in this?
Kenneth G. Zysk: My research topics include ancient South Asian Science and Medicine, with a special focus on knowledge transfer and cultural exchange in antiquity. My initial interested in Indian science started with a study of Indian medicine in the early Vedic literature, which was the topic of my doctoral thesis at the Australian National University in 1981. It was subsequently published and reprinted several times.
Ole Birk Laursen: What are your working theories and methods?
Kenneth G. Zysk: My primary research materials are principally literary. I use sources in all the ancient Sanskrit-based languages as well as classical European languages, such as Greek and Latin, when they are required. The texts in these languages might be printed editions or more commonly original manuscripts, which are then critically examined, edited and translated based on the methodology of philology. In order to elucidate the content of the texts that are studied, I would employ sources of natural history, when the topic necessitated the examination of biological topics and terminology. In this way, the approach involved philology combined with natural history.
Ole Birk Laursen: How is your research situated within the field of the history of science?
Kenneth G. Zysk: My research concerns the study of ancient Indian science and medicine in the general field of the history of science.
Ole Birk Laursen: What is the state of the history of science today?
Kenneth G. Zysk: Today, the general history of science is still Euro-centred. It has not yet embraced the history of science in non-western cultures, both ancient and modern. With the production of good and significant scholarship into the study of non-western medical and scientific traditions, such as those from South Asia, a more comprehensive understanding of the history of science and medicine will emerge.
Ole Birk Laursen: Why do we need to study the history of science?
Kenneth G. Zysk: Rather than the history of science, I prefer to call the discipline, “the history of knowledge,” after Lorraine Daston (2017), since what we do is an exploration into how we have come to know something; and, furthermore, how that knowledge is transmitted from person to person and from one culture to another.
Ole Birk Laursen: What is the value and impact of your research today? How does it connect with contemporary debates in broader society?
Kenneth G. Zysk: As far as I can tell the major impact of my research lies in the exploration of the field of the South Asian’s scientific and medical history and literature and to bring my findings to the attention not only to scholars of ancient South Asian history and culture but also to historians of science and medicine in general. I can only hope that my work contributes to the more general debate on origin of traditional Indian medicine (Ayurveda) and science (Jyotiḥśāstra) and the transfer of knowledge in antiquity.
Ole Birk Laursen: Are there any unusual stories you have come across in your research? Anything that changed your perception of dominant historical narratives?
Kenneth G. Zysk: As I dig into the literature of ancient South Asian medicine and science, I come across largely hidden references to extra-Indian systems of thought that have influenced the development of knowledge in ancient South Asia. These references have become the subject of several my more recent articles.
Ole Birk Laursen: What are your plans for future research?
Kenneth G. Zysk: I plan to publish a collection of these revised articles, under the title “knowledge-transfer and cultural adaptation in ancient South Asia,” which will bring to light some important exchanges of information that took place between cultures during the premodern period of South Asian history.
Ole Birk Laursen: What is the future of the history of science?
Kenneth G. Zysk: With an ever-expanding repository of source materials from different cultures through time, the history of science or the history of knowledge as a discipline of academic study becomes increasingly more relevant to a wider audience.
Ole Birk Laursen: Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions!