In the first half of the eleventh century, a group of scholars in southwest India did something new. They began composing systematic texts about everyday life in a register of language sometimes called New Kannada. While looking back toward earlier texts composed in Sanskrit - and even translating portions of them - these scholars centered their poetic ability and their personal experiences as opposed to prior authoritative texts. They described themselves as authoring "worldly sciences" that were "useful to the people of the world," and they provided extensive reflections on the systematics of knowledge. Epistemic, linguistic, and political concerns were significantly renegotiated in this moment as local context was turned into a virtue for the production of technical treatises. This article uses this moment to interrogate recent discussions of useful knowledge and vernacular science. Usefulness can mean different things at different times and vernacular sciences change according to their language. This article argues for a usage of both terms that is more attuned to historical particulars. A history of useful knowledge from a place that now appears under the double effacement of the non-modern and non-West offers an opportunity to think through central concepts of the history of science without relying on economic or utilitarian discourses. This paper presents one possible example of what a more global history of useful knowledge might look like.

中文翻译：

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有用知识的使用和方言科学语言：来自印度西南部的观点

十一世纪上半叶，印度西南部的一群学者做了一些新的事情。他们开始用一种有时称为新卡纳达语的语言来撰写有关日常生活的系统文本。在回顾用梵文撰写的早期文本——甚至翻译其中的一部分——时，这些学者将他们的诗歌能力和个人经历集中在与先前的权威文本相对的地方。他们将自己描述为“对世界人民有用”的“世俗科学”，并且他们对知识的系统学进行了广泛的反思。在这一刻，认知、语言和政治问题得到了显着的重新谈判，因为当地背景变成了技术论文生产的一种美德。这篇文章利用这个时刻来询问最近关于有用知识和白话科学的讨论。有用性在不同的时间可能有不同的含义，而白话科学会根据他们的语言而变化。本文主张使用更符合历史细节的两个术语。来自一个现在出现在非现代和非西方双重抹杀的地方的有用知识的历史提供了一个机会，可以在不依赖经济或功利主义话语的情况下思考科学史的核心概念。本文提供了一个可能的例子，说明有用知识的更全球化的历史可能是什么样子。本文主张使用更符合历史细节的两个术语。来自一个现在出现在非现代和非西方双重抹杀的地方的有用知识的历史提供了一个机会，可以在不依赖经济或功利主义话语的情况下思考科学史的核心概念。本文提供了一个可能的例子，说明有用知识的更全球化的历史可能是什么样子。本文主张使用更符合历史细节的两个术语。来自一个现在出现在非现代和非西方双重抹杀的地方的有用知识的历史提供了一个机会，可以在不依赖经济或功利主义话语的情况下思考科学史的核心概念。本文提供了一个可能的例子，说明有用知识的更全球化的历史可能是什么样子。