The Science of the Shulba: A Study in Early Hindu Geometry c14.8

c14.8

This theorem is now universally associated with the name of the Greek Pythagoras (*c.* 540 B.C.), though "no really trustworthy evidence exists that it was actually discovered by him."⁴ To denote it as shortly and clearly as possible, Hankel suggested for it the name "the Theorem of the Square of the Hypotenuse." It would be more in keeping with the form and spirit of the early Hindu geometrical terminology to alter this slightly to "the Theorem of the Square of the Diagonal.'' For the *Śulba* does not speak, as we do, of the right-angled triangle, but of the square and the rectangle. Hence the altered title is adopted here.