on indian mathematics

july 11th, 2007

thanks to reader harish.

i have been urging some people in kerala to make documentaries of the
kerala school of mathematics that invented infinite series and the
calculus: so much so that the maclauren series for tangents should
really be called the nilakantha series.

i recently got mail from someone that the manuscriptologist k v
sharma, who was the authority on the aryabhatiya, having authored the
canonical critical edition thereof, passed away in chennai. i met him
in 2005, and thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with him. he talked
about the immense number of unread sanskrit texts rotting away in
various places, and how his research into the aryabhatiya had
unearthed a large number of theorems from the various fragments and
rescencions of the manuscript originally dating to 499 CE, wherein
aryabhata had calculated pi to 7 digits, and had more or less
accurately given the diameter of the earth.

here is the full article from the hindustan times.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=3133ffd6-29cf-45b4-bc8b-0e55e362f7af&&Headline=Oxford+prof+documents+India%e2%80%99s+math+contribution

Oxford prof documents India's math contribution
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Naomi Canton, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Mumbai, July 05, 2007
First Published: 03:22 IST(5/7/2007)
Last Updated: 03:25 IST(5/7/2007)

Indians' contribution to the development of mathematics has largely
been swept under the carpet in global history books. But a BBC crew,
led by an Oxford professor, was in the country last week to film a
documentary revealing Indians created some of the most fundamental
mathematical theories.

The West has always believed that Sir Isaac Newton, famous for
developing the laws of gravity and motion, was the brainbox behind key
branches of maths such as calculus.

In The Story of Maths, Dr Marcus Du Sautoy, a professor of mathematics
at the University of Oxford, claims Indians made many of these
breakthroughs before Newton was born.

The Story of Maths, a four-part series, will be screened on BBC Four
in 2008. The first part looks at the development of maths in ancient
Greece, ancient Egypt and Babylon; the second focuses on India, China
and Central Asia and the rest look at how maths developed in the West.
The India reel focuses on how several Indians developed theories in
maths that were later discovered by Westerners who took credit for
them.

"A lot of people think maths was a Western invention," said Du Sautoy.
"This programme is about how a lot of things were done here in India
before they were discovered in the West. So the programme is in fact
quite political because it shows how much we have ignored discoveries
in the East," he said. Du Sautoy's team of a director, a cameraman and
a researcher left Mumbai on Monday.

In India, the team filmed on trains, inside sari stores, on the
backwaters of Kerala and in rickshaws. "It's been fantastic filming in
India as the visual backdrop is so rich," Du Sautoy said.

Aryabhatta (476–550 AD), who calculated pi, and Brahmagupta (598-670
AD) feature in the film, which also showcases a Gwalior temple, which
documents the first inscription of 'zero'.

"One of the biggest inventions in India was the number zero. Indians
used it long before the West did," said Du Sautoy. "When the West had
Roman numerals there was no zero and that is why they were so clumsy.
On the other hand, Brahmagupta was one of the key mathematicians in
the world because he invented the idea of zero."

The documentary also features the history of Kerala-born mathematician
Madhava (1350-1425) who created calculus 300 years before Newton and
German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz did, said Du Sautoy. "We learn
that Newton invented the mathematical theory calculus in the 17th
century but Madhava created it earlier," Du Sautoy said.

Chennai-born Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920) also features in the
film. "He developed a lot of his own maths. He contacted English
mathematician G.H. Hardy, who persuaded him to come to Cambridge. They
began a collaboration between the analytical maths of the West and the
intuitive maths of India, and together produced brilliant theories and
amazing results."

It was difficult for Ramanujan to travel to Britain because he was a
Brahmin and not allowed to travel by sea. "He had to almost give up
his religion but maths was also like a religion to him. He had no one
to talk to in India because at that time no one was interested in his
ideas," said Du Sautoy.