Mathematics in Ancient and Medieval India c7.2

c7.2

Early Indian and Chinese geometrical problems involved algebraical equations and their solutions similar to those of the Greeks who solved many comparatively difficult algebraic problems in a purely geometrical way. While the Greek algebra was developed by Diophantus in his *Arithmatica*, in the 3rd century A. D., the algebra in Babylon was developed much earlier in a more advanced form including problems on cubic and biquadratic equations, as recently shown by Neugebauer and others. One can not help wondering whether this Babylonian algebra could have been transmitted in seminal forms to lay the foundation of Indian and Chinese algebra on the one hand and for the Hellenistic development on the other. During the decay of Western Science in the early Middle Ages, the algebra of the Diophantine period was forgotten and when the great Arab Scientific Movement took place, Arabic algebra very probably derived its inspiration from India rather than from Greece.