these having long been attributed to the
Greeks,--are shown in these works to be native to India. Although this
discussion does not bear directly upon the {14} origin of our numerals, yet
it is highly pertinent as showing the aptitude of the Hindu for
mathematical and mental work, a fact further attested by the independent
development of the drama and of epic and lyric poetry.

It should be stated definitely at the outset, however, that we are not at
all sure that the most ancient forms of the numerals commonly known as
Arabic had their origin in India. As will presently be seen, their forms
may have been suggested by those used in Egypt, or in Eastern Persia, or in
China, or on the plains of Mesopotamia. We are quite in the dark as to
these early steps; but as to their development in India, the approximate
period of the rise of their essential feature of place value, their
introduction into the Arab civilization, and their spread to the West, we
have more or less definite information. When, therefore, we consider the
rise of the numerals in the land of the Sindhu,[51] it must be understood
that it is only the large movement that is meant, and that there must
further be considered the numerous possible sources outside of India itself
and long anterior to the first prominent appearance of the number symbols.

No one attempts to examine any detail in the history of ancient India
without being struck with the great dearth of reliable material.[52] So
little sympathy have the people with any save those of their own caste that
a general literature is wholly lacking, and it is only in the observations
of strangers that any all-round view of scientific progress is to be found.
There is evidence that primary schools {15} existed in earliest times, and
of the seventy-two recognized sciences writing and arithmetic were the most
prized.[53] In the Vedic period, say from 2000 to 1400 B.C., there was the
same attention to astronomy that was found in the earlier civilizations of
Babylon, China, and Egypt, a fact attested by the Vedas themselves.[54]
Such advance in science presupposes a fair knowledge of calculation, but of
the manner of calculating we are quite ignorant and probably always shall
be. One of the Buddhist sacred books, the _Lalitavistara_, relates that
when the B[=o]dhisattva[55] was of age to marry, the father of Gopa, his
intended bride, demanded an examination of the five hundred suitors, the
subjects including arit