A History of Sanskrit Literature c35.s5.8

c35.s5.8

Recently the claim of India to have inspired Arabic mathematics has also been attacked, on the score that Muḥammad ibn Mūsā (782) in his Algebra is not, as was long believed, really under Indian but under Greek influence, and a good case seems to have been made against any substantial importance of India in this regard; but there seems equally slight ground for the counterclaim that India borrowed after Brahmagupta from Arab mathematics at least in the period up to Bhāskara. But it must be remembered that Arabian science from A.D. 771 borrowed freely from Indian astronomy,³ translating and adapting both Āryabhaṭa and Brahmagupta, so that, if we hold that Arabia was independent in mathematics of India, we must recognize that borrowing of astronomy or astrology must not be adduced as conclusive for borrowing of mathematics. Coincidences with Chinese¹ mathematics are numerous and interesting, and it has, of course, long been urged that China invented the system of Nakṣatras found in early Indian astronomy,² but at present at least the case for dependence on China is not made out, and Indian influence on China is proved sufficiently by the history of Chinese Buddhism and the discoveries in Central Asia.