234 dhruv raina
underlining the textual nature of their enterprise, the French astronomer-
savants relied a great deal on proto-ethnographic descriptions of the
mathematical and astronomical practices of India. Secondly, the histories
of Indian astronomy of Bailly and Le Gentil are preoccupied with the
astronomy of India and the origins of Indian astronomy. 27 Even Montucla’s
history of mathematics relies extensively upon the proto-ethnographic
sources employed by Le Gentil and Bailly and draws inferences concerning
Indian mathematics from them. 28 Th e British Indological tradition, on the
other hand, engaged with specifi c texts and from the astronomical rules
presented there made a claim that these rules must be based on a math-
ematical system, and proceeded to discover mathematical texts. Th eir focus
thus shift s from the origins of astronomy to the origins of Indian math-
ematics, in particular Indian algebra and arithmetic. What were the rules
encountered and what were the claims made? Th e shift was precipitated by
the desire to craft a history of mathematics independently of the history
of astronomy. As scholars approached the corpus of Indian astronomical
texts, they encountered a corpus of knowledge recognizable to them as
algebra and arithmetic. Consequently, John Playfair was later to insist upon
the need to search for a geometrical tradition.
Reuben Burrow was probably amongst the earliest of the British
Indologists to engage with the textual tradition of Indian mathematics,
although this search was prompted through his exposure to and study of
astronomy, including Indian astronomy. Th is does not mean that these
texts did not relate in any way to the histories of Le Gentil and Bailly.
Actually, the texts of the former provided an initial frame for approaching
the diff erences between the Indian and Modern traditions. For Burrow
the study of the procedures employed by Indian astronomers in calculat-
ing eclipses would advance the progress of modern astronomy as well:
‘and the more so as our methods of calculation are excessively tedious
and intricate’. 29 Th e sentiment echoes that of Le Gentil and Bailly; and it
is certain that he was acquainted with the work of Le Gentil, 30 t h o u g h i t
is not possible to say the same of Bailly’s Traité de l’astronomie indienne et
orientale. Th is fascination with the computational procedures employed
in astronomy led Burrow to infer in 1783 the existence of an advanced
algebraic tradition:27 Bailly 1775 ; Le Gentil 1781.
28 Montucla 1799.
29 Burrow 1783 (1971): 101.
30 Burrow 1783 (1971): 116.