alternatehistory.com

India was, up until about the time of Isaac newton and Gottfried Leibnitz, the preeminent civilization in terms of mathematical knowledge. Their contributions to mathematics outweigh even those of the Greeks and possibly even the Arabs, I'd argue, being responsible for such concepts as negative numbers, representing numbers with decimals, numerals that were actually usable, the definitions of the trigonometric functions, and zero, all of which are basically essential in modern mathematics. They did impressive work with infinite series, which is now considered part of calculus (and two centuries before Europeans figured out calculus at that), but they never developed calculus itself. I see no reason to believe that they couldn't have, so what do you all think might've happened if some mathematician in Kerala, whilst trying to solve a complicated problem, wound up developing the foundations of calculus in the process long before the Europeans figured it out? Could such an important and useful mathematical advancement promote further advancement in physics and by extension technology? Or would it have been seen as nothing more than math for the sake of math? Not sure if this falls within the realm of expertise of many people on the board, but I'd like to hear any ideas all the same.
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