The Shulbasutras of Baudhayana, Apastamba, Katyayana and Manava: With Text, English Translation and Commentary c8.t1.64

c8.t1.64

The theorem of square on the diagonal of a rectangle is usually known as Pythagorean theorem after the name of Pythagoras (*c.* 540 B.C.). In fact, the relation 3² + 4² = 5² and some such relations have been used by Pythagoras, but evidence of any general statement regarding this is not yet available. Actual proof was first given by Euclid (*c.* 300 B.C.). Proclus (*c.* 460 A.D.), the commentator of Euclid's *Elements*b remarked: "For my part, while I admire those who first observed the truth of the theorem, I marvel more at the writer of the *Elements*, not only because he made it first by a most lucid demonstration, but because he compelled assent to the still more general theorem by the irrefragable arguments of science in the sixth book." Heath has quoted this with the remark:c "It is difficult for us to be more positive than Proclus was".