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Mahāvīra’s geometrical Problems: Traces of unknown Links between Jaina and Mediterranean Mathematics in the classical Ages

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History of the Mathematical Sciences

Abstract

In various publications [Høy95, Høy96, Høy01] I have argued for the existence in (what Western Europe sees as) the Near East of a long-lived community of practical geometers - first of all surveyors - which was not or only marginally linked to the scribe school traditions, and which (with branchings) carried a stock of methods and problems from the late third millennium BCE at least into the early second millennium CE. The arguments for this conclusion constitute an intricate web, and I shall only repeat those of them which are of immediate importance for my present concern: the links between the geometrical section of Mahāvīra’s Gaṇita-sāra-saṅgraha and the practical mathematics of the Mediterranean region in the classical ages.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Roskilde University, DK-4000, Roskilde, Denmark

    Jens Høyrup

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  1. Jens Høyrup
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Middlesex University, Enfield, UK

    Ivor Grattan-Guinness

  2. University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    B. S. Yadav

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© 2004 Hindustan Book Agency

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Høyrup, J. (2004). Mahāvīra’s geometrical Problems: Traces of unknown Links between Jaina and Mediterranean Mathematics in the classical Ages. In: Grattan-Guinness, I., Yadav, B.S. (eds) History of the Mathematical Sciences. Hindustan Book Agency, Gurgaon. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-93-86279-16-3_7

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