文档介绍：Mathematics in India
Geographical regions and modern states of India. Source:
Mathematics in India
Kim Plofker
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD
iv
Copyright c 2009 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press,
41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,
6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Plofker, Kim, 1963–
Mathematics in India / Kim Plofker.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-12067-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Mathematics—India—History. 2. Mathematics—India—bibliography. I.
Title.
2009
—dc22
2008028186
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
The publisher would like to acknowledge the author of this volume
for providing the camera-ready copy from which this book was printed.
A
This book has posed in LTEX.
Printedonacid-freepaper.∞
Printed in the United States of America
**********
Contents
Preface vii
List of Abbreviations xiii
Chapter 1. Introduction 1
Background and aims of this book 1
History and South Asia 4
Sanskrit literature and the exact sciences 10
Chapter 2. Mathematical Thought in Vedic India 13
The Vedas and mathematics 13
The Sulba-s¯´ utras 16
The Vedas and astronomy 28
The -ved¯a˙nga 35
Vedic India and ancient Mesopotamia 40
Chapter 3. Mathematical Traces in the Early Classical Period 43
Numbers and numerals 43
Astronomy, astrology, and cosmology 48
Mathematical ideas in other disciplines 53
Mathematics in Jain and Buddhist texts 57
Chapter 4. The Mathematical Universe 61
An introduction to geocentric astronomy 61
Evolution of the siddh¯anta and astronomical schools 66
Astronomical calculations in siddh¯antas 72
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