A Concise History of Science in India c7.3

c7.3

Indian mathematics received a new lease of life during the first few centuries of the Christian era. The demands of astronomy, particularly the need for more accurate computations of planetary motions, eclipses, etc., were in no small measure responsible for this. From now on we meet with a succession of mathematicians and astronomers and a fairly steady growth of mathematical-astronomical literature. The mathematical contents of this literature and its voluminous commentaries have for obvious reasons occupied the greater part of the discussion in the following pages.