The Shulbasutras of Baudhayana, Apastamba, Katyayana and Manava: With Text, English Translation and Commentary c5.s3.19

c5.s3.19

What is of great significance is the treatment of irrational numbers like √2 and statement of their accurate values. The manner in which such accurate values were possibly obtained by the *śulbakāras* has been fully discussed in our notes. Neugebauer has shown that these values are identical with those found in certain Babylonian cuneiform texts, given in sexagesimal system. He tried to imply that the Indian value after all represented the Babylonian one expressed only in decimal system or more accurately in fraction. As we have shown, there is certainly no proof of such an assertion and the Indian value is certainly derivable from the methods contained in the *śulbasūtras* themselves.