Dear colleagues,

I am pleased to announce our next online presentation on Monday, January 26, 10:30 a.m. EST. Dr. Satyanad Kichenassamy will be speaking on "Mathematical reasoning as an outgrowth of Vedic ritual." 

Abstract: 

The earliest text that formulates the theorem on the square of the diagonal of an oblong as a universal statement is Baudhāyana’s Śulvasūtra. This theorem is embedded in a discourse without diagrams, that indicates the first extant rigorous derivation of it. The invention of mathematical activity and based on inferences on word-representations reflects closely the relations between language, thought and action in Vedic ritual. Later Indian mathematical inventions were still based on this view, combined with the relatively late introduction of writing. This accounts for the invention of two new forms of representation, namely the positional system with zero, and literal algebra. While these developments are best understood against the backdrop of modern Indology, especially at EPHE in Paris, we will show here on a few texts that do not require familiarity with Indology, how the view that mathematical activity is a process of inferences on word representations, to be performed by free individuals, was part and parcel of a reflexive analysis of the successes and failures of Vedic ritual.

Please join us! If you are not yet registered with CHSTM and signed up to our group, please do so a few days before the talk, so that the zoom link for the talk becomes available to you. Our group and the schedule can be found here: https://www.chstm.org/group/history-science-early-south-asia

With best wishes,

Dagmar Wujastyk and Lisa A. Brooks