Digital Rare Book:
The History of Fireworks in India between A.D. 1400 and 1900
By P.K. Gode
Curator, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
Published by Indian Institute of Culture, Bangalore - 1953

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India's achievements of the mind and spirit need no brief for those farniliar with her literary heritage, and who today is not ?

That ancient India also had engineers of no mean ability is obvious from her temples and from her records of engineering feats, but the stereotype of an India disdainful of practical things is still widely accepted and needs to be broken. Several of our Transactions have borne witness to ancient Indian achievements in science and technology and in this scholarly paper, which was considered at a Discussion Meeting of the Indian Institute of Culture on March 19th,1953. Prof. P. K. Gode establishes the fact that in the applied science of pyrotechny medieval India not only did not lag behind Western countries in technical ingenuity and sltill but even seems to have developed fireworks for displays on festive occasions before the middle of the 15th century.

Professor Gode has carried his study as far as the available data permitted and invites the attention of other scholars to the history of fireworks in India.

The author of this paper is one of the most prolific and meticulous of modern Indian scholars and critics. The range of his research and its volume are a,s remarkable as his careful scholarship, which has been widely recognized. The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute at Poona, of which Professor Gode is the Curator, recognized his services by bestowing on him its Silver Jubilee Award in 1943.

Instead of producing one or more authoritative volumes in a chosen field, Professor Gode has ranged widely in his investigations, serving future research workers by amassing a wealth of trustworthy data on many subjects, like those brought together in the present study, on which the scholars of tomorrow can confidently build.