पृष्ठम्:Rekha Ganita.djvu/५०

B3 thatbhey actually did 8o ) togethher with very striking prooft of originality which abound in the writings of that country make it essential to consider the claim of the Hindus or ot bheir predecessors to bhe invention of geomethry. That is, waiving bhe question whether they were Hindus who invent ed decimal Arithmetic and Algebra we advance that "the people that first taught bhose branches of science is very likely to have been the first phat taught Geometry and again seeing bhat we certainly obtained the former two either from or at least through India, we think it highly probable bhat the earliest European geometry also came either from or through the Bame country In Geometry, the points of contact between the Sulva Satras and the work of the Greeks are so consider able that according to Cantor, the historian of Mathematics, borrowing must have taken place on one side or the other In the opinion of that authority, the Sulva Sutras were in fuenced by the Alexandrian geometry of Hero ( 215 B. C.) which he thinks, came to India after 100 B. C. The Sulva Sathras, are, however, probably far earlier bhan thhat date, for bhey form an integral portion of the S'rauta Shtras and thheir geometry is a part of the Brahmanical theologyhaving taken its rise in India from practical motives as much as the science of grammar. The prose parts of the Yajurvedas and the Brshmanas constantly speak of bhe arrangement of the sac rificial ground and the construction of altars according to very storict rules, the slightest deviation from which might cause the greatest disaster' • Whatever conclusions we may arrive as to bhe original source of the first astronomical ideas current in the world, it is probable that to the Hindus is due the in vention of algebra, and its application to astronomy and geo metry• + 'For whatever is closely connected with the ancient religion must be considered as having sprung up among the Indians themselves, unless positive evidence of the sbronges; kind point to a contrary conclusion. 8 * The geomethrical pro- • Vide the article on ‘Geometry' Penny Cyclopaedia, Vol. XI + Vide 'History of San8krit Literature' by A. A. Maodonell, p. 424. Monier Williams Indian Wisdom' p. 184. हैं Dr. G. Thibaut on the solva S¢tras. Vide Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1876, p. 228,