D.D. Kosambi: One Life, Many Worlds

by Ram Ramaswamy

English 384 pages 1 edition

Historian … Mathematician … Marxist … Polymath … D.D. Kosambi defied labels. The range and intellectual heft of his scholarship was truly astounding, with fundamental contributions in differential geometry and analyses in mathematics, the Kosambi distance in genetics, a statistical analysis of ancient coin hoards, a radical reinterpretation of Indian history and stellar compilations of the poetry of Vidyakara and Bhartrhari-all this in addition to a firm commitment to world peace and environmental activism. Yet, for a man who contributed so much to the Indian intellectual tradition, he remains largely unknown. Sixty years after his passing, there is scant recognition of his talents-he is quoted more often than he is read and praised more often than he is analysed. Ram Ramaswamy’s remarkable biography of Kosambi seeks to correct this lapse. Set against the backdrop of fascinating social, political, scientific and historiographical transformation in the subcontinent, and drawing from letters, journal entries, family accounts and unprecedented archival material, D.D. Kosambi: One Life, Many Worlds reveals a rare incandescent genius and a fearless independent spirit with boundless curiosity-whose relevance in the fields of pedagogy, research and invention can be seen even today.