Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c13.55

c13.55

technical terms like *trikoṇa* (τρίγωνος), and *jāmitra* (διάμετρον), are freely employed¹. The latter word occurs in Kālidāsa², a contemporary of Varāhamihira. Varāhamihira also wrote a treatise on the *Hora Jñāna* or doctrine of Lunar Mansions. The term is no doubt borrowed from the Greek ὥρα (Latin *domus*) used in this sense by Firmicus Maternus 335 A.D.³ On the other hand Europe borrowed, through the Arabs, a certain number of Sanskrit astronomical terms *e.g.* *aux*, *apex*, the Sanskrit *uchcha*. The Indian numerals, far less clumsy than the Greek and Roman ones, were also borrowed in the same way.