Introduction

An irksome feature in the study of the history of science, mathematics, and society formation is encountering `Eurocentrism' at practically every level. The notion that everything `civilised' originated in Europe is an enterprise which began around two hundred years ago, at a time when the world was divided into the `dark' continents and their `enlightened' colonial masters. Besides strengthening the view that the `dark' continents were indeed pitch dark, Eurocentrism was a reflex of the colonizers quest for legitimacy as the font of all things civilised. Many sociologists find in this Eurocentrism the seed which later bore the bitter fruit of Hitler's Aryan supremacy theory. Lately, however historians cutting across the North-South and East-West divides have come to realize the folly of Eurocentrism and the ways it has hindered the development and a critical study of history, be it of science or otherwise¹.

Unfortunately, some of us in India have not learned from these mistakes, and stubbornly continue to engage in an `Indocentric' view of science, mathematics, society, language, etc. Thus we are told that ``Sanskrit is the mother of all languages'', ``Indus valley civilisation is Vedic in origin'', ``India gave the world zero'', or more ludicrously as Mukherjee [1991] writes ``the mathematical conception of zero ... was also present in the spiritual form from 17000 years back in India''. The immediate need for this myth making may be political, but as with Eurocentrism, these new myths will undoubtedly retard any serious study of our heritage.

This is not to suggest that important and path breaking developments in science and mathematics did not take place in ancient India, but claiming exclusive ownership rights or dismissing and trivialising work done in other civilisations is not conducive to a proper understanding of our common human heritage.

In this article we elaborate on two topics. We first discuss the tablets from the Babylonian civilisation which deal with the Pythagoras' theorem and next we discuss the origin and history of zero. We would like to place this article in the context of Professor Amartya Datta's article in Resonance [April 2002] where discussing on the Pythagoras' theorem found in the Sulbasutra he writes ``Pythagoras theorem was known in other civilizations like the Babylonian, but the emphasis there was on the numerical and not so much on the proper geometric aspect, ...''; also regarding zero he writes `` India gave to the world a priceless gift - the decimal system ... (it) derives its power mainly from two key strokes of genius: the concept of place-value and the notion of zero as a digit''.

Most mathematics, e.g. Pythagoras' theorem and other geometric and algorithmic calculations, stem from utilitarian reasons, be they constructing religious altars, measuring lands, calculating the positions of stars and planets for astrological and astronomical purposes or constructing calendars. Thus it would not be a heresy to say that quite a few mathematical methods may have developed independently in many civilisations. Indeed, all available evidence seem to suggest against any monogenesis theory.