A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy (in Perspective) c8.s6.59

c8.s6.59

Rajagopal and his colleagues have drawn attention to and demonstrated, in terms of modern mathematics, a large number of further rational approximations of π which are found enunciated in later works like Yuktibhāṣa, Karaṇapaddhati and Sadratnamāla,³ for most of which there are no exact parallels in Western mathematics. These approximations had been obtained by the application of various corrections, presumably in the form of continued fractions, on partial sums of the infinite series for π/4. Indeed, the enunciation of these corrections speaks volumes about the fervour with which mediaeval mathematicians of Kerala attacked this fascinating problem and the success they achieved therein, some of their enunciations anticipating Western discoveries by nearly three hundred years. The same may be said with justification in the case of certain of their other mathematical contributions also. A competent and critical analysis, in terms of modern mathematics, of the writings of Kerala astronomers and mathematicians, the bulk of which still remains locked up in old palmleaf manuscripts, written in Malayalam script, may be expected to throw welcome light on the advances, down the centuries, made in these disciplines, in one remote corner of India.