Arun Ashokan

Dr. Arun Ashokan is a researcher who completed his post-doctorate from the Chair of History and Philosophy of Mathematical Sciences, ETH Zurich. He has been working on the history of vernacular mathematics in medieval South India (Kerala and Tamil Nadu, 9th-16th Centuries) since 2019. His current research, Thingking, investigates historical formation of material-oriented calculations in premodern India (9th-18th centuries) – focusing on computations involving paddy, rice, gold, wood, and land – by examining the intricate networks of relationships between human actions and nonhuman dynamics that has been signified in Indian mathematical treatises. This research analyzes how mathematical knowledge-numbers, measurements, procedures, and rules-emerged through complex interactions of various practitioners (such as sawyers, goldsmiths, agrarian-slaves, landlords, traders, accountants, and teachers) with things (such as paddy, wood, gold, and silver), artifacts (such as handsaws, crucibles, touchstone