History of Hindu Mathematics: A Source Book v2.c17.s14.59

v2.c17.s14.59

Modern historians of mathematics are incorrect in stating that Fermat (1657) was the first to assert that the equation Nx² + 1 = y², where N is a non-square integer, has an unlimited number of solutions in integers.⁴ The existence of an infinite number of integral solutions was clearly mentioned by Hindu algebraists long before Fermat.