Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c4.148

c4.148

There were many early writers on astronomy in India, and their works were reduced to a concise and practical form by *Āryabhaṭa*,² who was born at Pāṭaliputra, or Patna, in 476 A.D. He taught the rotation of the earth on its axis, and explained the causes of the eclipses of the sun and moon. Another famous Indian astronomer was Bhāskarāchārya, who was born in 1114 A.D. Closely allied to astronomy was mathematics, which is also dealt with in their works by early Indian astronomers. Algebra was also known, and it is to India that the West is indebted for its system of numerical notation, which came from India through the Arabs, and is often wrongly attributed to them. In some subjects, as, for example, astronomy, Indian scholars were influenced by Greek learning, but the exact connection in all subjects has not been fully worked out.