A Method of Teaching

Extract

In 1816 there appeared a translation by Dr. John Taylor of a treatise on Hindu Arithmetic and Geometry, published at the expense of the Literary Society of Bombay The author of this treatise was Bhascara Acharya (1114-c. 1185) and the treatise itself is of some importance in the history of Hindu mathematics. A discussion of this treatise, which is called the Lilawati, may be found by those interested in Rouse Ball’s History of Mathematics, pp. 150-154. It is however with the appendix to Taylor’s translation that we are here concerned. Little is known of Taylor himself except that he was born in Edinburgh, took his M.D. degree there in 1804 and died in Persia in 1821. He is believed to have published other translations from the Sanscrit besides the Lilawati. However, the appendix of this translation is entitled “A Short Account of the Present Mode of Teaching Arithmetic in Hindu Schools” and it may be of some interest to give a brief description of its contents.