History of Hindu Mathematics: A Source Book v1.c7.s2.1

v1.c7.s2.1

**Appreciation of Mathematics.** It is said that in ancient India no science did ever attain an independent existence and was cultivated for its own sake. Whatever of any science is found in Vedic India is supposed to have originated and grown as the handmaid of one or the other of the six "members of the Veda," and consequently with the primary object of helping the Vedic rituals. It is also supposed, sometimes, that any further culture of the science was somewhat discouraged by the Vedic Hindus in suspicion that it might prove a hindrance to their great quest of the knowledge of the Supreme by diverting the mind to other external channels. That is not, indeed, a correct view on the whole. It is perhaps true that in the earlier Vedic Age, sciences grew as help to religion. But it is generally found that the interest of people in a particular branch of knowledge, in all climes and times, has always been aroused and guided by specific reasons. Religion being the prime avocation of the earlier Hindus, it is not unnatural that the culture of other branches of knowledge grew as help to it and was kept subsidiary. But there is enough evidence to show that in course of time all the sciences outgrew their original purposes and were cultivated for their own sake. A new orientation had indeed set in in the latter part of the Vedic Age.