[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Science, technology and education](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science) › [Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.pingree-1981) › c5.2 # Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c5.2 Jyotiḥśāstra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c5.2 - **Language:** English ### [c5.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.pingree-1981.c5.2) Mathematics¹ is useful to a number of \*śāstras\* in India as elsewhere—the \*śulbasūtras\*, astronomy, and astrology, which are discussed in this volume, as well as such subjects as alchemy, medicine, prosody, and philosophy (particularly Jaina). But there also exists a literature directly concerned with mathematics, in particular with arithmetic (especially its commercial and other practical applications), algebra, and geometry. There was never in India a \*jāti\* of mathematicians, and rarely anything that could be called a school; most mathematicians were \*jyotiṣīs\* (astronomers or astrologers). Therefore, the mathematical literature consists either in the form of chapters of astronomical \*siddhāntas\* or of treatises composed, with a few exceptions, by scholars who were also authors of astronomical texts. Moreover, several important branches of Indian mathematics—analemmata and trigonometry, for instance—rarely if ever are treated outside of the astronomical context that endowed them with significance. - [Previous: c4.s7.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.pingree-1981.c4.s7.26) - [Next: c5.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.pingree-1981.c5.3) - [Up: c5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.pingree-1981.c5) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.pingree-1981.c5.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.science.pingree-1981.c5.2) · Pramāṇa