Ancient India owed much to Greece for astronomy. Similarly
west owed much to India for mathematics. Amongst ancient peoples, the Indians
and the Greeks made important discoveries in mathematics and astronomy. But
their outlooks were different.
The Greeks based their mathematics on geometry
and Indians based their mathematics on numbers. The Greeks looked upon
magnitude not as number, but as length. To Indians it meant number. The Greek
arithmetic, algebra and astronomy were completely dominated by their geometry.
To the Indians, geometry was also numerical and practical.
The Arabs
learnt these sciences and astronomy from ancient India and Greece, preserved
this knowledge for nearly 500 years and transmitted them to medieval Europe. So
much so, that European scholars ascribed the origin of these sciences to the
Arabs.
All ancient
nations knew the fundamentals of arithmetic such as addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division. Though these nations had symbols for writing
numbers they did not know the system of numeration. This system of writing
numbers with the help of nine numerical symbols and a symbol for zero was
invented by the Indians.
Like the Egyptians,
the Vedic Hindus adopted 10 as the basis of enumeration. They developed a
vocabulary of number names. Fractions are known to the rig Veda. The most
productive period in mathematics coincides with that of astronomy. So,
naturally, Aryabhata is the earliest great mathematician, followed by Bhaskara I
and Brahmagupta.
So many ancient Indians tried to create extraordinary
mathematics and astrology, really Indians created fundamental mathematics
like zero and fundamental astrology like plant systems.
Indians found miracles of astrology they described each
plant and its angle of position in the view of the earth. They found stars and all moving
space objects. They also found the reflection of sunlight on the plants.
Some astrological predictions felt extreme and unbelievable in Vedic astrology.
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