Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c13.80

c13.80

It must then be admitted to be at least possible, if not probable, in the absence of direct evidence and positive proof, that the imperfect algebra of the Greeks, which had advanced in their hands no further than the solution of equations, involving one unknown term, as it is taught by Diophantus, was made known to the Hindus by their Grecian instructors in improved astronomy. But, by the ingenuity of the Hindu scholars, the hint was rendered fruitful, and the algebraic method was soon ripened from that slender beginning to the advanced state of a well arranged science, as it was taught by Arya-bhatta, and as it is found in treatises compiled by Brahmegupta and Bhascara, both of which versions are here presented to the public.