Experts from Manchester University now believe Sir Isaac was not the first to figure out the mathematical concepts that are used in every branch of science – from chemistry to medicine to economics. They found the evidence in distinctive sequences of numbers written in an obscure medieval dialect on ancient papers from south west India.Dr George Gheverghese Joseph (pictured) identified the ‘infinite series’ – a set of numbers relating to calculus – in the texts belonging to the ‘Kerala School’ dating to around 1350.He said Indian philosophers also discovered the Pi series, essential to maths, physics and engineering.
Sir Isaac and German scholar Gottfried Leibniz are credited with laying out the principles of calculus in papers published in the late 1600s. But Dr Joseph claimed that European scientists may have taken the idea from Eastern thinkers, via Christian missionaries who visited India during the 15th century. He said: “The beginnings of modern maths are usually seen as a European achievement but the discoveries in medieval India between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries have been ignored or forgotten.“The brilliance of Newton’s work at the end of the 17th century stands undiminished – especially when it came to the algorithms of calculus.
“But other names from the Kerala School should stand shoulder to shoulder with him as they discovered the other great component of calculus – infinite series.”
He said the truth had not been discovered until now, because of lack of knowledge of the language Malayam, in which most of the texts were written.
