The Mathematical Accomplishments of Ancient Indian Mathematicians

The history of any remote ancient civilization is often surrounded by mystery and controversy. Even now, Western scholars have not given enough credit to the work of some of the ancient Indian mathematicians, particularly Brahmagupta and Bhāskara II, despite the fact that their entire works were translated into English by the British Sanskrit scholar Henry Thomas Colebrooke in the early part of the nineteenth century. The purpose of this article is to set forth the facts and leave the reader to interpret and assess them according to his own understanding of the subject. A sincere attempt has been made to do so. Due to limitations of space, this article discusses only some of the mathematical accomplishments of only a few outstanding mathematicians of ancient India.