Calculus and many theorems are of Kerala origin

Recently few claims have been made by researchers on the discoveries made by Kerala mathematicians. The most important claim is that the Calculus has been discovered for the first time, almost 250 years before Sir Isaac Newton, who has been credited with the discovery of the Calculus. These claims with proof were appeared in different news papers world over . It appears as per the report, the Manchester University has uploaded these claims in their website during the 13th of August, 2007. Thus the work of Dr. Gheverghese and his colleagues have received the credit of bringing the facts to the notice of the world for the first time. Indian Institute of Scientific Heritage, Trivandrum would like to bring to the notice of the world about the facts which appeared in the News papers both language Newspapers and also English News papers during 14th and 15th August 2007, all over India. Later days some more information has been published in some other News papers. Herewith we are submitting few comments.

The few very famous names of the great Kerala mathematics scholars are Sangama graama Madhvacharya, Sankara Varman, Achyutha Pisharoti, Puthumana Somayaji, Sankara Narayanan, Govinda Swamy, Parmaeswarcharya,Nilakanta Somayaji …. They have discovered many theorems. Many of their theorems are now known in the names of Newton, Gauss, Taylor, Lhuler, Gregory, Lebenitz and Demoiver . These theorems known in the name of the above western scientists . These were discovered and written minimum 250 to 700 years before western scientists, by the Kerala mathematicians or some other Indian mathematicians like Vateswaracharya in their Sanskrit books which are available even now in the printed form with English translation. Many of these books have been published by the Government recognized institutes, universities and charitable trusts involved in the R & D studies on the ancient heritage knowledge like Indian National Science Academy, Mathematics Department of Lucknow University and Visewarananda Viswa Vidyalaya, Hoshiarpur. Some books like Puhtumana somayaji’s Kranapaddhati has been published by the university of Kerala in Malayalam.

It is not complicated to find out the period of the Kerala / Indian mathematicians, for proving who has discovered the theorems or calculus for the first time and published them. What is needed is the knowledge of the Ka ta pa ya adi number and Bhootha sankhya number systems which were commonly used in these books for presenting the mathematical data and theorems. One should also know the commencement date of Kali Era, Saka varsha and Kalpa for converting the period into A or BC. Since use of AD and BC came into use later the Indians did not use them in their books. Conversion of Kali Era, Kalpa etc and Saka era to AD ( Christian Era) is easy and one can easily find out the period of every Indian / Kerala mathematicians without any confusion. Then one can prove that the period of Kerala mathematicians are before or after that of the Western scholars. One should remember that every Kerala mathematician or their students have given their date of birth /date of completion of their book directly or indirectly in their of work.

Given here is two examples of correctly giving the period of Indian mathematicians . Bhaskaracharya who has written Lilavti, Siddhanta siromany, etc has given his birth in bhootha ankhya in saka varsha “rasa-guna-poorna- mahee” which means saka era 1036 which is equal to AD 1114. Puthumna somayaji has given the year of his completion of Karanapaddhati book in saka varsha…” thri- pancha -sikhi – bhoomitha saaka samvatsare..” which means saka year 1353 which is same as AD 1431. In fact the publications of the INSA and other institutes have given correctly the period of authors also based on the calculations of the Western and Indian Sanskrit and mathematics scholars..

Based on the above facts Indian Institute of Scientific Heritage has submitted proof for the discoveries of many mathematical theorems and calculus In its publications Indian Scientific Heritage, forward written by Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, F.R.S ( 30thMay, 1999) which was published as the 14th publication in the series of Heritage publication series ( 28th Feb. 2000.) From this book the important theorems were separately selected and published by IISH as the 66th series of Heritage publication series, with a title “ We claim these are INDIAN DISCOVERIES” both the books are authored by myself. In the second book we have also given this information, “We are waiting for your unbiased and scientific views …..! We submit with proof these claims, on the discoveries and inventions of the facts mentioned in this book, to the scholars and scientists. We request you to inform us your opinions and views on these claims, that these are Indian discoveries / inventions. With full address, phone number and email address to reply. These lines are published in the third page of the book published on 21st March 2003. We have proved and produced with Sanskrit original text and English translation of the discovery of Vateswaracharya (AD 880) the Newton Gauss Backward interpolation (AD1670); Nilakanta Somayaji ( AD 1444) discovered the Newton Infinite GP Convergent Series (AD1670). NIlakanta Somayaji ( AD 1444) discovered Taylor Series (AD 1685). Govinda swamy discovered the Newton interpolation (AD 1670); Puthumana Somayaji ( AD 1431) discovered the Newton’s power series (AD 1660); Parameswaracharya (AD1360) discovered the Lhuier power series ( AD 1782) Madhavacharya (AD 1350) discovered the De Moiver’s approximation(AD 1650). ( the period of Indian mathematicians and western scholars are given respectively in bracket)

There are many more theorems which are not known hitherto are available in the Sanskrit books which have not been published in any others names.. We in our publication Indian Scientific Heritage these facts. Our books was published with the financial support ICHR, Govt of India a and also Indian National Science Academy. Thousands brochures, booklets in different languages have also been published and circulated to create awareness about Indian achievements in these fields .

We approached ‘The Hindu’ News paper, ‘Indian Express’, Mathrubhumi (Malayalam) Malayala Manorama (Malayalam) with proof that we (IISH) have already given proof about the facts that these discoveries were made in Kerala. Unfortunately except Indian Express, other News papers did not give a positive response.

We are sad to inform you that , the Indian media, the scholars and thinkers would like to get these claims from the west even after 60 years of independence, to publish in their publications or to believe. We are approaching the well wishers of IISH to do whatever is possible about this. IISH deserves the credit for bringing the facts to the world for the first time as a claim.

We request you to bring to light the work done by Indian Institute of Scientific Heritage, particularly during the time when only foreign claims are being entertained, even by Indians, when we are doing our level best to inform the public and scholars all about the truth and facts about Indian heritage for the last seven years.

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