The Crest of the Peacock

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Radhakrishna Warrier

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Oct 4, 2020, 5:34:45 PM10/4/20
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A friend just forwarded this book to me and I have just started reading it.  It looks to be interesting.  I have saved it in my Google Drive, and anyone can read/download the book from the above link to my Google Drive.

"The Crest of the Peacock - Non European Roots of Mathematics" by George Gheverghese Joseph.

"Like the crest of a peacock, like the gem
on the head of a snake, so is mathematics
at the head of all knowledge.
—Vedanga Jyotisa (c. 500 bc)"

Chapter 10 of the book is titled A Passage to Infinity: The Kerala Episode.  Therein is mentioned the Malayalam prose treatise Yuktibhāṣa  (യുക്തിഭാഷ) written by Jyēṣṭhadēva around 1530 CE.  I am interested in reading the book, both for its mathematical content and also to see how Malayalam gadyam (prose) of the 1530's looks like.  At present I don't know how I can get a copy of the book, or if at all I will be able to get one.  I knew about the Yuktibhāṣa long before reading the Crest of the Peacock.  Here is a Wikipedia article on Yuktibhāṣa:

Regards,
Radhakrishna Warrier
Yuktibhāṣā (Malayalam: യുക്തിഭാഷ, lit. 'Rationale'), also known as Gaṇitanyāyasaṅgraha (Compendium of Astronomical Rationale), is a major treatise on mathematics and astronomy, written by the Indian astronomer Jyesthadeva of the Kerala school of mathematics around 1530. The treatise, written in Malayalam, is a consolidation of the discoveries by Madhava of ...

Megh Kalyanasundaram

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Oct 4, 2020, 9:21:53 PM10/4/20
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Megh Kalyanasundaram

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Oct 4, 2020, 10:08:28 PM10/4/20
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Vol19_3_10_SupplementVedangjyotishaofLagdha.pdf

Swapna and Sunil

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Oct 4, 2020, 10:59:24 PM10/4/20
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Dear Mr. Warrier,

Thank you for this. I am not sure if Prof. K. Ramasubramaniam is in this group, but the professor does a lot of work in this field (Kerala astronomers). He may know more about finding the prose treatise Yuktibhāṣa.


Sunil

Swapna and Sunil

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Oct 4, 2020, 10:59:24 PM10/4/20
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Also, just realized that archive.org seems to have an ancient palm-leaf manuscript of the Yuktibhāṣa. 

Megh Kalyanasundaram

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Oct 5, 2020, 12:00:26 AM10/5/20
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"I am interested in reading the book, both for its mathematical content and also to see how Malayalam gadyam (prose) of the 1530's looks like" 

Radhakrishna Warrier

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Oct 5, 2020, 12:01:11 AM10/5/20
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Thank you very much Shri Megh for the copy of Vedanga Jyotisha, and also the link to the blog of Shri C.K. Raju.

I went through the blog article of C.K. Raju forwarded by Shri Megh.  This is the first time I am reading any publication of Jacob. I didn't know that Jacob was a plagiarist.  Nevertheless, the Crest of the Peacock is an interesting book.  There could be plagiarized stuff in this book too.  I haven't read it fully yet, so I don't know. But this is supposed to be a book on the history of non-European Mathematics, and it is not being presented as an original research work.  So, unless there is unacknowledged verbatim reproduction of matter from other works, I am not sure if inclusion of what others have published previously can be considered as plagiarism in a book on history.

Thank you very much S/Shri Swapna and Sunil for the presentation of Prof. K. Ramasubramaniam.  That was very informative.  Thank you to the link to archive.org.  Another member of this group also forwarded it privately to me.  The manuscript is written in Malayalam script.  Of course it is a copy of the original work.  I wonder what script was used in the original work.  It is said that Ezhuthachan was the originator of the modern Malayalam script.  But if the Yuktibhasha was written in the 1530's and if the script was modern Malayalam script, then the script predates Ezhuthachan.

Regards,
Radhakrishnan
  
From: bvpar...@googlegroups.com <bvpar...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Swapna and Sunil <swa...@gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: {भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्} The Crest of the Peacock
 

shankara

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Oct 5, 2020, 12:09:38 AM10/5/20
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Namaste,

The samanyaganita section of Yuktibhasha in Malayalam script, published in 1948 is available online at https://archive.org/details/Yukthibhasha1948

regards
shankara


Radhakrishna Warrier

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Oct 5, 2020, 12:19:06 AM10/5/20
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Great!  Thank you very much Shri Shankara for this link.

Regards,
Radhakrishna Warrier
From: 'shankara' via भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत् <bvpar...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 4, 2020 9:09 PM
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Subject: Re: {भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्} The Crest of the Peacock
 

Bandhavi Brahma

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Oct 6, 2020, 12:13:57 AM10/6/20
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Prof. Divakaran spends some time discussing युक्तिभाषा in this lecture (and included technical details as well in parts 2 and 3 of same lecture series) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWZ15EKElH0

Radhakrishna Warrier

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Oct 6, 2020, 12:24:06 AM10/6/20
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Thanks Bandhavi for the link.  The video is quite interesting.  I am watching it now.

Regards,
Radhakrishna Warrier
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