Science recognises Mahabharata: Lord Sri Krishna and Arjuna on the cover page of International Chemistry Journal

2011

Syed Akbar

Hyderabad, March 3: Lord Sri Krishna and Arjuna have made to the cover page of the prestigious international chemistry journal, "Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry," published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, the United Kingdom. This is perhaps the first time that a scientific journal has published on its cover page a scene from the great epic of Mahabharata.

"Lord Sri Krishna stands for celestial philosophy. The "one-pot combination" reactions developed by us is a classic example of chemical philosophy. Our chemical philosophy is inspired by the celestial philosophy of Lord Sri Krishna," said Dr BD Ramachary of the department of chemistry, University of Hyderabad.

The famous Mahabharata scene depicting Lord Sri Krishna and Arjuna on the rath was designed by the UoH for the research work on "one-pot" chemical reactions contributed by Dr Ramachary. The depiction of Lord Sri Krishna with Arjuna on the cover page of the prestigious chemistry journal coincides with the International Year of Chemistry.

Dr Ramachary emphasises the need for development of different ways of producing chemical products that have an influence in the daily life of man in a more sustainable way, producing less waste and involving less money. "Organic synthesis can be made much more efficient by designing processes in which multiple catalysts operate sequentially in "one-pot" with multiple components," he added.

Dr Ramachary said he derived the inspiration to develop this novel chemical philosophy/technology from the great epic Mahabharata as warriors Arjuna and Lord Sri Krishna achieved many victories, protecting people from demons and keeping them in good spirits. "Similarly, sequential one-pot combination of multi-component reactions and multi-catalysis cascade reactions will be victorious over many problems in synthetic organic and pharmaceutical chemistry," Dr Ramachary added.