Did the Vedics use symbols when they expressed their algebraic equations ?
The use of concise mathematical symbolism (<,>,=,*,(), inf., sup., the integral sign, the derivative sign, the sigma sign etc is a relatively recent revolution in mathematics, When calculus was invented by Newton and Leibniz independently, they used different notations. Newton used dots on top of the quantity and called them fluxions, while Leibniz used the ‘d’ notation. Unfortunately when all the major advancements in science and mathematics were happening in Europe in the 17th and 18th century, India was stagnant, caught in interminable wars and conquests and was finally subjugated by the British. Ironically it was the Indian place value notation that triggered the advance in Europe. Prior to this it was common to express all problems in wordy sentences and verse. As to the value of PI (cannot be expressed as a fraction) it is impossible to calculate it without the use of some variant of the ‘method of exhaustion’. In this particular instance it was a matter of using increasingly lar
