Chapter 8 - Ancient and Medieval India - Summary

Pangasinan State University
Bayambang Campus
College of Teacher Education
Bayambang, Pangasinan
WRITTEN REPORT
IN HISTORY OF
MATHEMETICS
IN INDIA
Prepared for:
Mr. Armando C. Manzano
Prepared by:
Kenneth Ventura
Mathew Castañeda
Sharrah Mae Austria
Daniel Ballesteros
Renylene Simeon
Nhel Jake Montemayor
Jhess Aldrean Alguno
Chapter 8: Ancient and Medieval India

PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITY 1
The Hindu-Arabic Numerals are the numerals that is used today. Sulbhasūtras is a
work that found in the Vedic era and contains geometric computations about brick
building. Harsha was a remarkably tolerant and just ruler in the northern India between
606-647 CE. Most of Indian mathematics is recorded in astronomical works. From 14th
to 16th centuries, there was a sequence of transmission from teacher to pupil.
Then the beginning of combinatorics, trigonometry, and its associated techniques.

The development of infinite series began in the 15th century.
 Mantras from the early Vedic period (before 1000 BCE) invoke powers of ten
from a hundred all the way up to a trillion and provide evidence of the use of
arithmetic operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, fractions,
squares, cubes, and roots.
 A 4th Century CE Sanskrit text reports Buddha enumerating numbers up to 1053,
as well as describing six more numbering systems over and above these, leading
to a number equivalent to 10421.
 Given that there are an estimated 1080 atoms in the whole universe, this is as
close to infinity as any in the ancient world came.
 The Sutras also contain geometric solutions of linear and quadratic equations in
a single unknown, and give a remarkably accurate figure for the square root of 2,
obtained by adding 1 + 1⁄3 + 1⁄(3 x 4) - 1⁄(3 x 4 x 34), which yields a value of
1.4142156, correct to 5 decimal places.
 Ancient Buddhist literature also demonstrates a prescient awareness of
indeterminate and infinite numbers, with numbers deemed to be of three types:
countable, uncountable, and infinite.
 Like the Chinese, the Indians early discovered the benefits of a decimal place
value number system and were certainly using it before about the 3rd Century
CE.
 The Indians were also responsible for another hugely important development in
mathematics.
 The earliest recorded usage of a circle character for the number zero is usually
attributed to a 9th Century engraving in a temple in Gwalior in central India.
 The use of zero as a number which could be used in calculations and
mathematical investigations would revolutionize mathematics.
 Brahmagupta also established rules for dealing with negative numbers and
pointed out that quadratic equations could in theory have two possible solutions,
one of which could be negative.
 The so-called Golden Age of Indian mathematics can be said to extend from the
5th to 12th
PANGASINAN Centuries,
STATE and many of its mathematical discoveries predated similar
UNIVERSITY 2
discoveries in the West by several centuries, which has led to some claims of
plagiarism by later European mathematicians, at least some of whom were
probably aware of the earlier Indian work.
 Certainly, it seems that Indian contributions to mathematics have not been given
due acknowledgement until very recently in modern history.
 Indian astronomers used trigonometry tables to estimate the relative distance of
the Earth to the Sun and Moon.
 Golden Age Indian mathematicians made fundamental advances in the theory of
trigonometry, a method of linking geometry and numbers first developed by the
Greeks.
 For instance, Indian astronomers used trigonometry to calculate the relative
distances between the Earth and the Moon and the Earth and the Sun.
 Their sine tables gave a ratio for the sides of such a triangle as 400:1, indicating
that the Sun is 400 times further away from the Earth than the Moon.
 Although the Greeks had been able to calculate the sine function of some angles,
the Indian astronomers wanted to be able to calculate the sine function of any
given angle.
 A text called the "Surya Siddhanta", by unknown authors and dating from around
400 CE, contains the roots of modern trigonometry, including the first real use of
sines, cosines, inverse sines, tangents, and secants.
 He used this to estimate the circumference of the Earth, arriving at a figure of
24,835 miles, only 70 miles off its true value.
 Bhaskara II, who lived in the 12th Century, was one of the most accomplished of
all India's great mathematicians.
 He is credited with explaining the previously misunderstood operation of division
by zero.
 He noticed that dividing one into two pieces yields a half, so 1 ÷ 1⁄2 = 2.
 Ultimately, therefore, dividing one into pieces of zero size would yield infinitely
many pieces, indicating that 1 ÷ 0 = ∞ (the symbol for infinity).However,
Bhaskara II also made important contributions to many different areas of
mathematics from solutions of quadratic, cubic and quartic equations (including
negative and irrational solutions) to solutions of Diophantine equations of the
second order to preliminary concepts of infinitesimal calculus and mathematical
analysis to spherical trigonometry and other aspects of trigonometry.
 The Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics was founded in the late 14th
Century by Madhava of Sangamagrama, sometimes called the greatest
mathematician-astronomer of medieval India.
 He developed infinite series approximations for a range of trigonometric
functions, including π, sine, etc.
We know that Islamic scholars learned Indian trigonometric from Indians in

Baghdad. But there is no record of the Indian solution of Pell equation being known in
Europe before European scholars solved it themselves. Nor do we know how quadratic
formula reached India or whether Islamic scholars knew of it. In 1630-1680 some of the
basic ideas in Indian trigonometric texts began to appear in European works. The
Jesuits, in their quest to proselytize in Asia, established a center in South India. We can
only speculate as to whether these texts were transmitted to Europe by the seventeenth
century.

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Pangasinan State University

Jhess Aldrean Alguno

Chapter 8: Ancient and Medieval India

Then the beginning of combinatorics, trigonometry, and its associated techniques.

We know that Islamic scholars learned Indian trigonometric from Indians in

PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITY 4

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