Subject: Re: [HM] Indian astronomy and mathematics
From: Kim Plofker (Kim_Plofker@Brown.edu)
Date: Tue Feb 01 2000 - 18:33:31 EST
> Vis-a-vis Vedic astronomy :
> -------------------------
Well, I don't think this is the appropriate forum to prolong a debate
on Vedic astronomy and/or chronology. Each of us has now given a summary
of the general position put forth by the "traditional" and "revisionist"
historiographies, respectively, and indicated references for further
information; I think that at this point our colleagues on this list may
judge the matter for themselves, or else take it upon themselves to initiate
further discussion.
> Vis-a-vis achievements of Indian mathematicians after 1000 AD :
> -------------------------------------------------------------
>All the Hindu/Jain mathematicians I know of since 900AD were patronised by
>Hindu/Jain kings - and yes there were pockets of Hindu kingdoms (in Rajasthan,
>Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra, Kerala, Karanatka etc.), even through the heyday
>of Muslim empire, that survived till the British empire (mid-1800s).
>
> I know only of the Muslim mathematicians from Persia that studied in India
>but none that collaborated with the Hindu mathematicians, perhaps you can
>tell me of the one's who did.
As my final contribution to this thread, I'll give a few examples of
exactly this sort of Hindu/Muslim collaboration in mathematics and astronomy:
- In 1370 the Jaina astronomer Mahendra Suri, working at the court of Firuz
Shah Tughluq, produced a Sanskrit recension of Muslim works on the Islamic
astrolabe.
- A team of scholars at Akbar's court in the 16th century translated the
Persian _Zij-i Ulugh Beg_ into Sanskrit.
- In the mid-1600's a Hindu astronomer named Nityananda, working at the court
of Shah Jahan, produced Sanskrit treatises on Muslim astronomy.
- The anonymous Sanskrit _Hayatagrantha_, dating from around the middle of
the seventeenth century, is a translation of a Persian work on cosmology.
- At the court of Jayasimha in Jaipur in the early 18th century, the
astronomical work that resulted in the compilation of the _Zij-i Muhammad
Shah_, dedicated to Jayasimha's Muslim overlord, included collaborations
such as that of Nayanasukhopadhyaya and Muhammad 'Abid in producing
Sanskrit translations of an Arabic version of Theodosius' _Spherics_ and
of al-Birjandi's commentary on al-Tusi's _Tadhkira_.
Persian translations of Sanskrit mathematical works such as the
_Lilavati_ and _Bijaganita_ of Bhaskara were also made. More information
about any of the above scholars can be found in D. Pingree's _Census of
the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit_; for a fairly comprehensive and recent overview
of the whole topic (and an excellent bibliography), see S. M. R. Ansari,
"On the Transmission of Arabic-Islamic Astronomy to Medieval India,"
_Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences_, vol. 45, 135, Dec. 1995.
Given the large numbers of translations and new syntheses of Muslim and
non-Muslim science in second-millennium India it is very evident that,
in spite of undeniable instances of hostility, oppression, and mutual
antagonism, there was also a great deal of mutual scientific inquiry
and cooperation.
With best wishes,
Kim Plofker
Department of History of Mathematics
Brown University
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