THE ASTRONOMY Or THE HINDUS. l6l 



II. 



Are any booh of Hindii Ar it hmet'tcc to be pro- 

 cured? 



It should seem, that if such books exist, they must 

 contain much curious information, with many a- 

 bridgments in the labour of calculating, and the like ; 

 all which may be reasonably expected from them, 

 since an arithmetical notation, so perfect as that of 

 India, has existed in that country much longer than 

 in any other; but that which most of all seems to 

 deserve the attention of the learned, is, the discovery 

 said to be made of something like Algebra among the 

 Hindus ; such as the expression of number in general 

 by certain symbols, and the idea of negative quanti- 

 ties. These certainly cannot be too carefully en- 

 quired into ; and will, it is hoped, be considered by 

 the Society at Calcutta as a part of that rich mine from 

 which they have- already extracted so many valuable 

 materials. The problem mentioned by Mr. Bur- 

 row * proves, that the Hindus have turned their at- 

 tention to certain arithmetical investigations, of which 

 there is no trace in the writings of the G^eck mathe- 

 maticians. 



III. 

 Must not a complete translation of the Su'iya 

 Siddha nta be considered as the grand desideratum 

 %vitb respect to Indian Astronomy? 



* 2 Asiat. Res. 49^. 



Vol. IV. M Sir 



