Indian Mathematics c6.2

c6.2

8. There appears to be no connecting link between the *Śulvasūtra* mathematics and later Indian developments of the subject. Subsequent to the *Śulvasūtras* nothing further is recorded until the introduction into India of western astronomical ideas.∗ In the sixth century A.D. Varāha Mihira wrote his *Pañcha Siddhāntikā* which gives a summary account of the five most important astronomical works then in use. Of these the *Sūrya Siddhānta*, which was probably composed in its original form not earlier than A.D. 400, afterwards became the standard work. Varāha Mihira's collection is the earliest and most authentic account we have of what may be termed the scientific treatment of astronomy in India. "Although," writes Thibaut, "not directly stating that the Hindus learned from the Greeks, he at any rate mentions certain facts and points of doctrine which suggest the dependence of Indian astronomy on the science of Alexandria; and, as we know already from his astrological writings, he freely employs terms of undoubted Greek origin."