Greetings! My friend C. Krishnan Nampootiri based in Kerala, India,
has written a book on ancient Indian mathematics using sources from
the Vedas down to works written during the middle ages some of which
is still on palm leaf mss. He uses the work of people like
Parameswaran, Maadavan, Neelakanttha Somayaaji. The book is in
Malayaalam, a south Indian language. Do you know of any agency who
could help Mr. Nampootiri, a mathematician and a Sanskritist, to
publish his book in English and Hindi so that people learn about
India's mathematical and astronomical past?
The story is fascinating and there is a lot of material. Many of the
Indian discoveries predate European advances. I don't know if you
know Prof. Frits Staal. He has written an article in the Journal of
Indian Philosophy in 1995(?) where he talks about the Keralan
tradition of science which was more advanced than that of the rest of
India. Dr. Staal wonders why the Indians did not move on to symbolic
language which probably would have enabled them to advance even more.
This is surprising considering the fact that Indian grammarians had
constructed an artificial language and inaugurated scientific
linguistics way back before the C.E.
If you know of any potential source of assistance, please write to me
at dkmkartha@yahoo.com. Thanks. Mohan Kartha July 19, 1999.