Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
A large and ancient civilization grew in the Indus River Valley in Pakistan
beginning at least by 7,000 B.C.E. One of the older and larger sites is at Mehrgarh. The
remains of this site are on the Kachi Plain near the Bolan pass in Baluchistan, Pakistan.
The earliest people inhabiting Mehrgarh were semi-nomadic, farmed wheat, barley and
kept sheep, goats and cattle. There was no use of pottery in the early era, from 7,000 to
5500 B.C.E. The structures were simple mud buildings with four rooms. The burials of
males included more material goods in this time. From 5500 to 3500 B.C.E. there was
use of pottery and more elaborate female burials. Stone and copper drills were used to
create beads, and the remains of two men have dental holes drilled in their teeth.
Mehrgarh was abandoned between 2600 and 2000 B.C.E., when the Harrappan
civilization grew nearer to the Indus River.
From 2300 to 1750 B.C.E. there was an advanced and large civilization in the
Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra River Valleys in Pakistan. The Ghaggar-Hakra River system
is largely dried up, now. Many sites have been excavated over a large area stretching
from the foothills of the Himalayas to the Arabian sea. The most famous cities are
Mohenjo-Daro and Harrappa. These were both planned cities which were larger than
any cities of the time in Mesopotamia or Egypt. We have thousands of stone and pottery
objects with the as yet undeciphered script of these people on them. There were standard
weights and measures in regular geometric shapes such as cubes, cones and cylinders
with weights in the ratios of 1, 2 , 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1/2, 1/10 and 1/20.
There was a ruler with a standard unit of length which was subdivided into ten equal
intervals. Their mud bricks were constructed in integer multiples of this length. We thus
have evidence of a decimal number system. There were baths in individual houses with
sewer systems serving the cities, and larger public baths. It is clear that mathematics
played a role in such a large and organized, agriculturally based, society. After 1750 the
Indus valley cities were abandoned quite possibly due to climactic conditions and
disruptive changes in the landscape which led to the diverting of large river channels.
By 1700 to 1000 B.C.E. there was oral transmission of knowledge called the
Vedas. They were later written in Sanskrit, the root language of all Indo-European
languages, by the second century B.C.E. The old writing is on birch bark and palm
leaves, so it disintegrates over time. Veda means knowledge in Sanskrit. The Vedas are
divided into four main categories. These are:
• The Samhitas, which are collections of hymns, rituals for sacrifices and chants.
The four Smahitas are the The Rig-veda, Sama-veda, Yajur-veda and the Atharva-
veda. These are the oldest vedas, dating from around 1500 to 1000 B.C.E.
• The Aranyakas explain some more dangerous rituals and were composed about
700 B.C.E.
• The Upanishads are the newest vedas from about 800 to 500 B.C.E. They are
more philosophical in tone and discuss knowledge and meditation as paths to
spiritual awakening. They are called the Vedantas, meaning the end of the Vedas.
The mathematics in the Vedas occurs in appendices called Vedangas. The fifth
and sixth vedangas are the Jyotis (astronomy) and the Kalpa (rituals). One instance of
geometry is the construction of a fire-altar in the shape of a falcon. The construction
involves parallelograms, triangles, squares and trapezoids and had to be done with
extreme care. Estimates for Pi were done here. Equivalences of areas in differing shapes
led to the ideas of squaring circles and, conversely, circling squares.
The Sulba-Sutras are further works expanding upon the Vedangas, possibly
supplementing the Kalpa. Sulba refers to a chord of rope used to construct altars. A sutra
was a stylized form of vedic literature. They date from about 800 to 200 B.C.E. Three
authors can be singled out for mathematical exposition in the Sulba-Sutras. Baudhayana
who worked between 800 and 600 B.C.E had Pythagorean triples and a form of the
Pythagorean Theorem in his teachings. The work of Apastamba (around 600 B.C.E.)
contains the approximation to 2 which is given by 1 + 1/3 + 1/12 + 1/((12)(34)) =
1.4142156, which is correct to 5 decimal places. The early Indians were aware that only
!
approximations could be found for irrational numbers. A third such author is Katyayana,
who worked about 200 B.C.E.
In the sixth century B.C.E. religious reformers appeared in India. The first we
know of is Mahavira, who preached the Jain religion. The Jains developed a fair amount
of mathematics due to their belief in the immortality of souls, and because they became
involved in the commerce of the day. Mahavira preached Ahimsa (non-violence) and
Satya (truthfulnesss) and that the soul is seduced by the influence of karmic, material
particles stuck to it resulting from erroneous choices in life. The true destiny of the soul is
spiritual liberation from the illusions of karma and reality. He denounced worship of
gods, founded orders of monks and nuns and was carrying on the Jain religion which had
preceded him.
Gautama the Buddha lived about 550 to 480 B.C.E. he was a reformer who
denounced organized religion. He believed that the root cause of human suffering is
ignorance, and devised ways to eliminate this ignorance.
In the power vacuum left by the death of Alexander The Great, Chandragupta
!
Maurya established the Mauryan Empire which grew from the eastern side of India to
encompass most of India and Pakistan. Chandragupta was a Jain. He defeated an invasion
by Seleucus I, who had taken over the eastern portions of Alexander’s empire. He ruled
from 322 to 298 B.C.E. He arranged for a Seleucid princess to marry a Mauryan noble.
Thus there would have been transfers of knowledge between these two cultures.
Babylonian and Greek philosophy, mathematics and astronomy would have passed to the
east and analogous Indian knowledge would have passed to the west. During this period
of time there came to be less use of altars in India and the need for mathematics in the
society changed to more practical matters. At the end of his life, Chandragupta went to
the south of India, became a Jain ascetic and ended his life by starving.
The next great figure on the stage of Indian history is the legendary ruler Ashoka,
(304 to 232 B.C.E.) a grandson of Chandragupta, who ruled India from 272 to 232 B.C.E.
He expanded the Mauryan Empire to Persia in the west and Assam in the east. After
witnessing many deaths in the battle of Kalinga which he himself fought, he embraced
Buddhism and worked to spread it throughout southeast Asia. He had contacts with the
Seleucids and with the Mediterranean cultures.
The oldest extant written record of the Jaina mathematics is the Bakshali
Manuscript which is on birch bark and is dated to be from between 300 and 600 A.D. It
is written in sutra format. This work contains good square root approximations, solutions
of indeterminate algebra problems in several unknowns (in our terminology) a decimal
place value system, use of a dot for zero, quadratic equations and the quadratic formula.
# # r &2 &
% % ( (
2 r % $ 2n ' (.
The square root algorithm is N = n + r = n + "
2n % # r & (
% 2%$ n + 2n (' (
$ '
This is very accurate for several decimal places.
The most prosperous, long lasting and large empire in Indian history is that of the
Guptas, which lasted from! 320 to 720 A.D. The most prestigious ruler of the Guptas
was Chandragupta II. The arts, literature and sciences flowered during this era. The
epic Indian works of literature, the Ramayana and the Mahabbharatta, were
completed during this time. There was internal peace and trade abroad. The Hindu
Brahmin religion spread across India. A first known center of learning was established
at Nalanda, near current-day Patna in Bihar state in northern India during the fifth
century A.D.
Aryabhata now uses this to find a solution to the equation 154x + 32 y = 6, say.
He takes the last fractional expression and omits the last fraction, (1/3), in the lower right
of the expression, obtaining 4 + 1/(1 + 1/4) = 4 + 1/(5/4) = 4 + 4/5 = 24/5. He then cross
multiplies the 154/32 times the 24/5 and changes one sign to a negative to get
5(154)- 24(32) = 2. Since 6 = 2(3) we have the solution when we multiply by 3,
15(154) – 72(32) = 6 so x = 15 and y = -72 is one solution.
This is the same as back substituting in the Euclidean algorithm to solve for
2 = 154s + 32t.
Though the positional decimal system of writing numbers predates him, it was
the work of Aryabhata that put the full system in place. This was further spread in Indian
intellectual circles by the work of the later mathematician, Varahamihira in 857 A.D.
Another example of Jain mathematical ingenuity is the Jain Magic Square. Not
only do all rows and all columns and the main diagonals add up to the magic number of
34, but the broken diagonals like 7 + 11 + 10 + 6 do also. Here it is:
7 12 1 14
2 13 8 11
16 3 10 5
9 6 15 4
Here is a proof: (A) Suppose that (x1, y1) is an integral solution to ax + by = c and that
d = g.c.d(a,b). Then ax1 + by1 = dmx1 + dny1 = d(mx1 + ny1) = c, so c is an integer
multiple of d, or d divides c.
On the other hand, suppose d divides c, c = dr, where r is an integer. Since d =
g.c.d(a,b) there are integers s and t so that d = as + bt, by Aryabhata’s method or by back
substitution in the Euclidean algorithm.
So c = dr = r(as + bt) = a(rs) + b(rt) and x = rs, y = rb gives the required integral
solution to the equation.
(B) Now how about all solutions? Suppose (x1, y1) is one solution. Any other
solution (x, y) has the property that a(x1 – x) + b(y1 – y) = 0, since both ax1 + by1 = c
and ax + by = c, so one subtracts the two. Say also that a = dm and b = dn
So a(x1 – x) = -b(y1 – y) and we get m(x1 – x) = -n(y1 – y)
y1 " y x1 " z
So = " and we denote this quantity by the letter t.
m n
a # x1 " x &
And dividing the second by b gives us y1 + % ( = y or y = y1 – at/d.
! d$ n '
This finishes Brahmagupta’s proof of his theorem, in our symbolism and
language.
Unfortunately he also “sees” that 0/0 = 0 and N/0 = a fraction with zero denominator, a
number.
!
!
If you start with our values twice you get new (x, y) = ( 18, 161). If you then perform this
multiplication using the two pairs of values (1, 9) and (18, 161) you get a new pair
(323, 2889) which works.
Brahmagupta is multiplying numbers like (y + x√3) as follows:
3 5 7 3 9 8