III.
A.D. 400 to 600.
8. There appears to be no connecting link between the S'ulvasūtra mathematics and later Indian developments of the subject. Subsequent to the S'ulvasūtras nothing further is recorded until the introduction into India of western astronomical ideas.[1] In the sixth century A.D. Varāha Mihira wrote his Pañcha Siddhāntikā which gives a summary account of the five most important astronomical works then in use. Of these the Sūrya Siddhānta, which was probably composed in its original form not earlier than A.D. 400, afterwards became the standard work. Varāha Mihira's collection is the earliest and most authentic account we have of what may be termed the scientific treatment of astronomy in India. "Although," writes Thibaut, "not directly stating that the Hindus learned from the Greeks, he at any rate mentions certain facts and points of doctrine which suggest the dependence of Indian astronomy on the science of Alexandria; and, as we know already from his astrological writings, he freely employs terms of undoubted Greek origin."
Varāha Mihira writes:—"There are the following Siddhāntas—the Pauliśa, the Romaka, the Vasishtha, the Saura and the Paitamaha.…… The Siddhānta made by Pauliśa is accurate, near to it stands the Siddhānta proclaimed by Romaka, more accurate is the Sāvitra (Sūrya). The two remaining ones are far from the truth."
- ↑ This has a somewhat important bearing on the date of the S'ulvasūtras. If, for example, the date of their composition were accepted as 500 B.C. a period of nearly 1,000 years, absolutely blank as far as mathematical notions are concerned, would have to be accounted for.
