The reception of ancient Indian mathematics by western historians

Abstract

While there has been an awareness of ancient Indian mathematics in the West since the sixteenth century, historians discussed the Indian mathematical tradition only after the publication of the first translations by Colebrooke in 1817. Its reception cannot be comprehended without accounting for the way that new European mathematics was shaped by Renaissance humanist writings. We sketch this background and show with one case study on algebraic solutions to a linear problem, how the understanding and appreciation of Indian mathematics was deeply influenced by the humanist prejudice that all higher intellectual culture, in particular all science, had risen from Greek soil. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.