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Dear all,

We are delighted to invite you to a talk by Professor Amartya Kumar Dutta (Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata), titled “Was There Sophisticated Mathematics During the Vedic Era?”

Abstract: Ancient India had a strong tradition in mathematics. This is a truth brought forward with much wealth of detail by dedicated historians of mathematics like Bibhutibhusan Datta. The roots of this tradition go back to at least the Vedic period. Explicit records of some of the mathematical knowledge of the Vedic era occur in the Sulba-sutras and other Sutra texts. Glimpses of the mathematical developments in the Vedic period also come out indirectly but clearly from even the Samhita and Brahmana portions of the Vedas themselves.  In ‘The Science of the Sulba, A Study in Early Hindu Geometry’ (1932), B. Datta expresses his  sublime wonder at the mathematical accomplishments of the Vedic savants: “How great is the science which revealed itself in the Sulba, and how meagre is my intellect! I have aspired to cross the unconquerable ocean in a mere raft.” The eminent mathematician Abraham Seidenberg too marvels at the mathematical contributions during the Vedic period in his papers like ‘The Ritual Origin of Geometry’ (1962), ‘The Origin of Mathematics’ (1978) and ‘The Geometry of Vedic Rituals’ (1983). In this talk, we shall demonstrate a few specific examples from the constructive geometry of the Sulba-sutras, discuss their mathematical sophistication and highlight the ‘geometric algebra’ manifested in the constructions. Time permitting, we shall also cite examples to show the strength of Vedic India in computational mathematics.

Bio: Amartya Kumar Dutta is a Professor of Mathematics at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata. He obtained his PhD in Mathematics under Prof. S.M. Bhatwadekar at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, in 1994, and has several research publications in Commutative Algebra and Affine Algebraic Geometry. A recipient of the INSA Teachers Award, Prof. Dutta has taught, mentored and guided several students since he joined ISI Kolkata as a faculty member in 1996. For the past 25 years, Prof. Dutta has also been regularly delivering lectures and writing articles on topics in the history of science, especially on ancient Indian mathematics. He is the recipient of the first Satish C Bhatnagar Award in History of Mathematics of the Indian Mathematical Society. Prof. Dutta has been teaching history of mathematics in ancient India and science in modern India in the one-year Indology course at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata.  From January 2022, Prof. Dutta has been writing serially on mathematics in India in the mathematics magazine, BhAvanA.

Looking forward to having you with us.