Algebra

Among the fragments of Eastern science, with which the learning and zeal of the Western scholars in India have enriched the literature of the West, none perhaps were ever more deserving the attention than those by this work, namely four different treatises, in Sanskrit Verse, on the Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry, of ancient India. Two of these treatises, the Lilavati and Vija Ganita, are the works of Bhaskaracharya. The other two books are still more ancient and were composed by a mathematician of the name of Brahmagupta besides the original pieces, the volume contains a dissertation by the learned translator, full of learned and judicious research, on the early History of Algebra. From the ample store of information which he has combined in a singular volume, he has indeed done a great service to the subject in particular, and the advanced system of ancient Indian Mathematics and Astronomy.