Kerala Mathematics : History and Its Possible Transmission to Europe

Contents: Introduction. I. The Kerala school of mathematics and astronomy: the social and historical contexts: 1. Infinite series across three cultures: background and motivation--a brief survey/George Gheverghese Joseph. 2. Indian mathematical tradition: the Kerala dimension/V. Madhukar Mallayya and George Gheverghese Joseph. 3. An intellectual background of medieval Kerala with special reference to mathematics and astronomy/Vijayalekshmy M. and George Gheverghese Joseph. II. Work of the Kerala school of mathematics and astronomy: some exemplars: 4. Kerala mathematics: motivation, rationale and method/V. Madhukar Mallayya and George Gheverghese Joseph. 5. Derivation of the infinite series expansion for as demonstrated in the Yuktibhasa/P. Rajasekhar. 6. Mathematics of Tantrasangraha and its successors/Jean Michel Delire. III. Establishing transmissions and other philosophical and methodological issues: 7. Establishing transmissions: some methodological issues/Arun Bala. 8. The philosophy of mathematics, values and Keralese mathematics/Paul Ernest. IV. Earlier transmission of mathematics from India and parallel developments elsewhere: 9. Early transmissions of Indian mathematics/Sreeramula Rajeswara Sarma. 10. Calculus and infinite series in seventeenth-century Europe/Jacqueline Stedall. V. The Jesuit conduit: the background and evidence: 11. A report of the investigation on the possibility of the transmission of the medieval Kerala mathematics to Europe/Dennis Almeida and George Gheverghese Joseph. 12. The Jesuit mathematicians in India (1578-1650) as possible intermediaries between European and Indian mathematical traditions/Ugo Baldini. 13. Uncatalogued Malayalam manuscripts in Europe: a report of work carried out in two libraries in Rome/M.R. Raghava Varier. Conclusion and issues raised. Participants of the workshop.

“In the history of mathematics, the invention of calculus and ‘the passage to infinity’ are seen as major benchmarks in the creation of modern or advanced mathematics. A principal focus of this volume is tracing the beginnings of modern mathematics to India, notably Kerala, and how these ideas and techniques may have been transmitted to Europe. It such transmission proves to be significant, it would help to deconstruct the prevailing Eurocentric account of the development of modern mathematics. To that end invitations were extended to a group of distinguished historians, mathematicians, educators, linguists, philosophers and others to make presentations at a two-day workshop held in Trivandrum. And this is reflected in the breadth and depth of the papers presented in this volume.” (jacket)