An Islamic Golden Age or Appropriation of Hindu achievements ?
Who developed algebra, Trigonometry, our numeral system and the concept of Zero to give basis for the European scientific revolution? Despite some common wisdom misinformation it was mostly Hindu and Jain Mathematicians. The Brahmi numerals, a numeral system attested from the 3rd century India, was the base for Hindu numeral system used by Indian mathematician such as Aryabhata and Brahmagupta. Aryabhata (476–550 CE) - a Hindu astronomer used the digit zero in his calculations, and calculated pi to accuracy of 5 figures. Brahmagupta (598–670 CE) - a Hindu mathematician and astronomer, was the first to give rules to compute with zero, Brahmagupta wrote books on math and astronomy, discussing algebra including giving a full solution to the quadratic equation (Ax^2 + Bx + C). The Indian mathematical text Surya Prajnapti (3rd–4th century BCE) and the works of the Jain Monk Yativrsabha (500-570 CE) describe the concept of infinity. The mathematical Bakhshali Manuscript (3th century CE) describes negative numbers. Varāhamihira (505–587 CE) - described the algebraic properties of negative numbers, and discovered trigonometric formulas such as sin^2x + cos^2x = 1. Bhāskara (600 –680 CE) - gave a rational approximation of the sine function Only the later Madhava of Sangamagrama (1340-1425 CE) - gave more accurate approximations to the sine function (since Bhāskara) and to the Pi (since Aryabhata) - correct to 17 decimal places. So, my question is, Why are Indian historians so silent when their civilization achievements in math (3rd – 7th century) are “borrowed” to support the vocal Islamic “golden age” narrative (8th -12th century)? This info is not just trivia, the golden age myth is used to assert the notion that Islam doesn’t need a progressive reformation and instead calls to step back into its glorious past, before it was “hijacked by the extremists”.
via YouTube https://youtu.be/kN2rvquYBbQ
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