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Hello, mathematics from the Indian subcontinent have provided foundations for much of our

modern thinking on the subject. They were thought to be the first to use zero as a number,

our modern numerals have their roots there too. And mathematicians in the area that's now India

Pakistan and Bangladesh were grappling with concepts such as infinity centuries before Europe.

They've got to grips with it. There's even a suggestion that Indian mathematicians

discovered Pythagoras' theorem before Pythagoras. Some of these advances have their basis in

early religious texts, which describe the geometry necessary for building falcon-shaped

altars of precise dimensions. Astronomical calculations used to decide the dates of religious

festivals also encourage these mathematical developments. So how are these advances passed

on to the rest of the world? And why was the contribution of mathematics from this area

ignored by Europe for centuries? Joining me to discuss this is George Givagees-Jersef,

an honorary reader in mathematics education at Manchester University. Dennis Armeda,

mathematics educator at Exeter University and the Open University. And Colbert-Roney-Dougall,

lecturer in pure mathematics at the University of St Andrews. George Jersef, the beginnings of

Indian maths can be traced back to the Indus civilization, about two and a half thousand years

BC in the main cities of Harapa, which is now in Pakistan. Can you tell us what's been found there,

which would confirm the claim that mathematics can be sort of begun in the Indian subcontinent there?

Well, I think the Indus civilization is probably more appropriately called the Harapa civilization

because it seems to stretch over a very large area, not just the Indus valley alone,

but about 1.2 million square meters. Now, because Indus script has not been deciphered,

...