The first great chemist of the modern era who became one of the foremost authorities on mercury compounds, both mercurous and mercuric. His name was Prafulla Chandra Ray.
Ray came from a village school in what is now Bangladesh. Just as Mohanja-daro, the seat of the ancient civilization in the Indian subcontinent is no longer part of India, the birth-places of many great scientists and writers of old Bengal are now in Bangladesh.
Ray was patriotic in an enlightened way. He expressed his patriotism symbolically by casting off his suit and tie upon his return from England in 1888, and by adopting simple and graceful Bengali attire. He understood the intrinsic value of modern science and its relevance for the welfare of the people. Ray’s life, as that of many Hindus, showed that English education need not necessarily make one what is now called a Macaulayite. It can also transform one into a better-informed and more enlightened person with respect to India’s culture and history.
Ray had received a doctoral degree from the University of Edinburgh in analytical chemistry, working on amorphous mixtures and the nature of molecular combinations. Upon his return home, he had some difficulty finding a suitable position, but eventually he became the first Indian professor of chemistry in India. He did so well in this capacity that the government gave him enough funds to have his own research laboratory: again the first in India. Here he continued with his explorations of mercuric salts, and tried to discover a new element: Mendeleev’s periodic table still had some gaps. Though many of his papers on the mercury compounds were published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, they received attention from the prestigious British journal Nature which alerted its readers to Ray’s work.
Ray was also interested in organic chemistry because it is related to the food we eat. He knew that food adulteration was common practice among the local merchants. Adding water to milk may not be serious, but when ghee (clarified butter) and mustard oil were contaminated with undesirable ingredients, it could be quite dangerous for health. So Ray undertook meticulous chemical analysis of the purest ghee and mustard oil that he prepared in his laboratory, and compared these with what was available in the market, with shocking revelations.
Ray felt science should be more than a labor of love of knowledge. It is cultivated by forming future scientists, and it needs to be used for the benefit of one’s countrymen and of humanity. So Ray trained students, and came to be called the founder of the Indian Chemical School.
Like Lavoisier and Leblanc in eighteenth century France, Ray wanted to put his knowledge of chemistry to use. So, with only a modest capital he established chemical companies like Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works, Bengal Pottery Works, Calcutta Soap Works, and Bengal Canning and Condiment Works. Besides manufacturing articles, these provided jobs for thousands of people. His industrial undertakings brought him lots of money too. But he gave it all away for charities and scholarships. Thus, this great ascetic-scientist spent much of his talents and resources for the benefit of his people.
Ray happened to see Marcellin Berthelot’s Les chromos de l’alchemie, and was inspired to write a few papers on this. He shared them with the eminent French chemist who encouraged him to write a treatise on the subject. Thus it was that Ray’s two volume classic on the History of Hindu Chemistry emerged, based on objective analysis of a plethora of extant Sanskrit works. Ray traced the development of chemistry in India into four distinct periods: ancient times (1500 BCE – 800 CE), a transitional period (800 to 1100), the Tantric period (1100 – 1300), and finally the period of iatrochemistry (1300 – 1550). This was historical scholarship at its best, a careful search into the past, no nationalistic flag-waving or complaining about Western scholars.
Ray received many well-deserved honors in his lifetime. He was a genuine scholar, great philanthropist, and man of uncommon simplicity. People like him combine whatever is best in India’s rich tradition with whatever is good that the West and other cultures offer. Such was this great rishi of modern India, dedicated to the pursuit of science and silently serving his countrymen.
Spurts of Thought 