Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c5.s2.1

c5.s2.1

The mathematics utilized in astronomical texts is most developed in the areas of analemmata and of trigonometry—as well as, of course, the application of the pulverizer to astronomical problems that we have already considered. Some of the most significant mathematical work undertaken in India was in connection with trigonometry.⁶¹ Briefly, after the initial success in constructing tables of Sines and Versines and in inventing a rule for finding the approximate Sine of any angle in the fifth through seventh centuries, the next advance was the discovery by the second Bhāskara of the formula for the addition of Sines. The more advanced trigonometry of the seventeenth and eighteenth century astronomers of northern India seems to be due to the influence of al-Kāshī and Ulugh Beg.