Indian Mathematics c12.3

c12.3

Other possible paths of communication between the Indians and Greeks are by way of China and by way of Persia. The former is not so improbable as it at first seems. Further information about the early silk trade with China might possibly throw light on the subject. The intellectual communication between India and China at the critical period is well known—there being numerous references to such communication in Chinese literature. If sound translations of the early Chinese mathematical works were available we might be able to draw more definite conclusions, but as the evidence now stands there is nothing that would warrant more than the bare suggestion of a Chinese source.