Author:
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: August 14, 2007
URL: http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20070813125230&Title=Top+Stories&rLink=0
A group of Malayali scholars had predated
a ground-breaking Newton 'discovery' by over 250 years, according a research
paper published on Monday.
The team of researchers from the Universities
of Manchester and Exeter reveal that the 'Kerala School' identified the 'infinite
series'- one of the basic components of calculus - in about 1350.
The discovery is currently - and wrongly -
attributed in books to Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibnitz," says
Dennis Almeida, one of the researchers and Teaching Fellow at the School of
Education. The research team says that the Kerala School 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 the Indians passed on their discoveries to mathematically knowledgeable
Jesuit missionaries who visited India during the fifteenth century.
That knowledge, they argue, may have eventually
been passed on to Newton himself.
In fact Dr George Gheverghese Joseph, one
of the researcher and Honorary Reader, School of Education at The University
of Manchester came to know of the ancient discovery while trawling through
obscure Indian papers for a yet to be published third edition of his best
selling book 'The Crest of the Peacock: the Non-European Roots of Mathematics'
by Princeton University Press.
He said: "The beginnings of modern maths
is usually seen as a European achievement but the discoveries in medieval
India between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries have been ignored or
forgotten.
"The brilliance of Newton's work at the
end of the seventeenth 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.
"There were many reasons why the contribution
of the Kerala school has not been acknowledged - a prime reason is neglect
of scientific ideas emanating from the Non-European world - a legacy of European
colonialism and beyond.
"But there is also little knowledge of
the medieval form of the local language of Kerala, Malayalam, in which some
of most seminal texts, such as the Yuktibhasa, from much of the documentation
of this remarkable mathematics is written."
He added: "For some unfathomable reasons,
the standard of evidence required to claim transmission of knowledge from
East to West is greater than the standard of evidence required to knowledge
from West to East.
"Certainly it's hard to imagine that
the West would abandon a 500-year-old tradition of importing knowledge and
books from India and the Islamic world. But we've found evidence which goes
far beyond that: for example, there was plenty of opportunity to collect the
information as European Jesuits were present in the area at that time. They
were learned with a strong background in maths and were well versed in the
local languages. And there was strong motivation: Pope Gregory XIII set up
a committee to look into modernising the Julian calendar."
On the committee was the German Jesuit astronomer/mathematician
Clavius who repeatedly requested information on how people constructed calendars
in other parts of the world.
The Kerala School was undoubtedly a leading
light in this area. Similarly there was a rising need for better navigational
methods including keeping accurate time on voyages of exploration and large
prizes were offered to mathematicians who specialised in astronomy.
Again, there were many such requests for information
across the world from leading Jesuit researchers in Europe. Kerala mathematicians
were hugely skilled in this area.
