International - India & World   

Calculus from Kerala School

London: A little-known school of scholars in southern India discovered one of the founding principles of modern mathematics hundreds of years before Sir Isaac Newton, to whom the finding is currently attributed, according to new research findings announced here.

George Gheverghese Joseph, an academic and author, says the ‘Kerala School’ identified the ‘infinite series’, one of the basic components of calculus, circa 1350.

The discovery is attributed in books to Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibnitz at the end of the 17th century, the University of Manchester reported on in its website.

The Manchester-Exeter universities team said the Kerala School had also discovered what amounted to the Pi series and used it to calculate Pi correct to 9, 10 and later 17 decimal places.

And there is strong circumstantial evidence that Indians passed on their discoveries to mathematically savvy Jesuit missionaries who visited India during the 15th century. That knowledge, the researchers argue, may have been passed on to Newton.

The research was carried out by Dr. Joseph, Honorary Reader, School of Education at The University of Manchester and Dennis Almeida, Teaching Fellow at the School of Education, The University of Exeter.

Dr. Joseph, who hails from Kerala, made the finding while trawling through obscure Indian papers for a third edition of his book The Crest of the Peacock: the Non-European Roots of Mathematics, the report said.

Dr. Joseph said: “The beginnings of modern maths is usually seen as a European achievement but the discoveries in medieval India between the 14th and 16th centuries have been ignored or forgotten… The brilliance of Newton’s work at the end of the 17th century stands undiminished — especially when it came to the algorithms of calculus. But other names from the Kerala School, notably Madhava and Nilakantha, should stand shoulder to shoulder with him as they discovered the other great component of calculus — infinite series.”

Dr. Joseph attributed the non-acknowledgment of the contribution of the Kerala school to the neglect of scientific ideas emanating from the Non-European world, “a legacy of European colonialism and beyond.” — PTI

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

First breakthrough in the hostage drama
Cubans celebrate Castro’s 81st birthday
Amnesty offered to trapped Tigers
Brown mulling mid-term elections to cash in on popularity?
3 die in church shooting
Musharraf admits to waning of his popularity
Art to bridge cultures
Liver cell breakthrough
Bird flu death
Sabeel appears in court
Calculus from Kerala School
Indian envoy calls for timely delivery of Gorshkov

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu