Teaching calculus as gaṇita

C. K. Raju
c.k.raju@ganita.guru

Indian Institute of Education
G. D. Parikh Centre, J. P. Naik Bhavan
University of Mumbai, Kalina Campus
Santacruz (E), Mumbai 400 098

Relevant self intro

  • Selected, IIT-JEE in 1970 (declined)
  • Left CAS in Math/TIFR courses to join IIT: Delhi (1976) for PhD in Math.
  • Attended 2 lectures asked 2 easy questions which went unanswered.(see blog "Idiots and IIT").
  • One prof candidly said: "so what if I don't know math, don't I have a right to earn my living?" 😲
  • I left IIT in 3 months (since math faculty knew no math) for PhD from ISI (Delhi/Kolkata).

Taught formal math

  • In Stats/Math DeptS of Pune University (1981-88) Taught real analysis from Baby Rudin
  • and Advanced Functional Analysis from Chacha Rudin (Topological Vector Spaces, Schwartz Distributions).
  • Difference? On baby Rudin a discontinuous function is not differentiable
  • on chacha Rudin it is INFINITELY differentiable if it is Lebesgue integrable.😀
  • E.g. derivative of discontinuous Heaviside function is the Dirac δ, 2nd derivative δ′ etc.

A key topic of my research then:

  • which derivative is BETTER for nonlinear PDEs of physics at a discontinuity such as a shock wave:
  • college calculus derivative (undefined at a discontinuity)
  • or the Schwartz derivative
  • So what fails at a discontinuity: physics or calculus?

But at a lecture in IIT:BHU some years ago,

  • a professor (sic 😄) walked out saying a discontinuous function cannot be differentiated (see blog, 😠)
  • He knew ONLY college calculus or baby Rudin, not chacha Rudin. 🤣
  • From IIT:Delhi (1976) to IIT:BHU(2019), my experience of over 40 years: IIT math faculty has exhibited extreme ignorance of math.
  • My worry: If the faculty lacks knowledge of basics, how will students ever learn calculus properly?

Anyway I joined C-DAC, 1988, initially headed Applications Development

Wrote articles and book since 1998 on Indian calculus

Extended abstract of today's talk (with refs) online

  • But will deviate from that script. Why?
  • Useless to talk of advanced things when most don't know basics.😀
  • So, let us start from fundas and another story.

Minister S&T at Science Congress 2015

Neta did not read class IX math text, chp. 5, p. 79

  • which says "many (Egyptians, Babylonians, Indians…) did geometry EARLIER, but Greeks did it BETTER"

Point 1: First or Better?

  • Saying "We did it FIRST" is a foolish response to the pūrva pakṣa which claims
  • "many did it earlier, but Greeks did it BETTER"
  • Many Indians repeatedly make the same mistake: happy just to claim "we did it first".
  • Why? Deciding which is BETTER requires knowledge of BOTH math and gaṇita which are being compared.
  • Our neta-s certainly don't have knowledge of math or its history. Do you?
  • Does your faculty have it?

Which calculus is better?

  • (1) Indian calculus, or
  • (2) the calculus you teach/learn in IIT?
  • Obvious you implicitly BELIEVE (2) is better
  • that is why you teach it!

Which calculus is better (contd)?

  • My point: Indians did calculus first,
  • also DIFFERENTLY AND BETTER.
  • BUT West failed to understand for centuries the different Indian way to do calculus,
  • or that it was better,
  • just as West collectively stupid, failed to understand for 9 centuries
  • even Indian primary-school arithmetic which too it "imported"
  • West arithmetically backward since early Greek times
  • first imported Indian arithmetic in 10th c. ("Arabic numerals").
  • But West was STUPID and failed to GRASP primary-school arithmetic
  • for 9 centuries till the 19th c.
  • But the colonised blindly believe Western supremacy from early Greek times.

10th c. Gerbert (pope Sylvester II) accepted that

Fibonacci (13th c.) too blundered:

  • his Liber Abaci lacks negative numbers (like al Khwarizmi)🤣
  • Why? Because in primitive Graeco-Roman (pebble) arithmetic
  • subtraction means removing pebbles from an existing hoard
  • and you can't remove more pebbles than there are on the counting board!

Western foolishness about Indian arithmetic persisted till 19th c.

  • Pascal (17th c.), Euler 18th c.), De Morgan (19th c.) 🤣🤣🤣
  • but the colonized cannot accept these celebrated Western mathematicians were utter fools.
  • My Q: how could the West have "discovered" calculus centuries before it fully understood primary school arithmetic?
  • A. Like Vasco [Christian] discovered India, or Columbus [Christian] discovered America!

Macaulie

  • de Morgan comes after Macaulay
  • BUT we did not check facts, but blindly accepted Macaulay's lie about
  • "immeasurable Western supremacy" in math and science
  • Hence, calculus before arithmetic.

पादरीवाद

  • Hence we adopted the colonial education system = church education system.)

WOW-syndrome

  • So, some go WOW, see the greatness of Pascal : he said $ 0-4 = 0 $!
  • WOW, see the greatness of Euler: he said $ -1 < 0 $, BUT $ -1 > ∞ $!
  • WOW, see the greatness of De Morgan: he said $ 10-11 $ is not meaningful!
  • Story NOT over: our supposedly leading historian of math Dhruv Raina in JNU
  • (a 3rd class in chemistry who knows no math)
  • did his PhD on Ramchundra, because of the WOW syndrome (personal communication, "de Morgan praised it")
  • despite my advice that it was nonsense.
  • Naturally, I and my pet monkey laugh at the WOW fanaticism of the colonially educated!
  • Anyway, if math faculty in IITs does not even understand (e.g. at IIT:BHU)
  • different notions of derivative WITHIN axiomatic math
  • How can THEY debate WHICH calculus (math or gaṇita) is better?
  • So back to elementary school stuff.

Ganita vs math (for Pyth. proposition)

  • In 2015, Minister should have said, as I have done
  • that Indian way of doing Pythagorean calculation (NOT theorem)
  • as in the Manava (NOT Baudhāyana) śulba sūtra different
  • and BETTER than anything Greeks COULD do.

Why is gaṇita better (in geometry)?

  • Because practical applications need calculation NOT axiomatic proof
  • Manava SS 10.10, unlike Baudhayan, calculates diagonal,
  • uses square ROOTS. It says:
  • In a rectangle with sides \(a\), \(b\), and diagonal \(d\), \[d = \sqrt {a² + b²}.\]
  • Square roots unknown to early Greeks, who were BACKWARD in arithmetic
  • (square roots first came to Europe with 13th c. Fibonacci, from India via Arabs)
  • but needed to CALCULATE \(d\) from knowledge of \(a\), \(b\) as required for practical applications.
  • So, gaṇita better for practical applications.
  • What about epistemic "rigor"?̣

Point 3: class IX math text brazenly LIES

  • To deceive students, school text deliberately
  • uses only one word "reasoning" for both.

Why such a BIG lie at the foundations of math?

  • To hide that axiomatic proof NOT found among early Greeks OR in "Euclid" book;
  • but IS found in Crusading church theology.
  • If you believed/understood that "rigorous" "axiomatic" proof invented for politics of crusading church
  • would you still use it?

Reasoning/deduction USED for proof in gaṇita

"Euclid" book has NO axiomatic proofs

  • uses empirical proof in its 1st and 4th proposition (SAS)
  • needed to prove Pyth. proposition.
  • Superstitious West understood it only after 750 years at the end of 19th c.

Indian gaṇita method of proof BETTER and EASIER:

To reiterate the key point

A question

  • Why is it essential to tell lies to children about the foundations of math?
  • Lies which cannot be publicly defended?
  • Govt standard of proof ("this is stated in Western texts so you MUST believe it") NOT acceptable.
  • (Western univs were church madrases, which spread church propaganda. Reject this rubbish.)

E.g. Cambridge blunder

  • This rewrite fundamentally changed the book
  • (e.g. Hilbert's synthetic geometry lacks notion of distance/length needed for Pyth. theorem.
  • since "Euclid" book was a Neoplatonic religious text
  • never intended axiomatic proof.

Won't explain in more detail. My point today

  • If you don't understand 9th std. geometry
  • you cannot possibly UNDERSTAND calculus.
  • Possible remedy? Take my course in rajju-gaṇita (for 9th std. as, when and if I offer it).

Point 4: scientific vs theological reasoning

Point 4 (axiomatic proof prohibits empirical)

Axiomatic proof an INFERIOR form of proof. Why?

  • Axiomatic proof does NOT lead to VALID knowledge.
  • E.g. Rabbit theorem
  • This is a valid axiomatic proof.
  • But the conclusion ("theorem") is invalid knowledge, in fact, nonsense.
  • So, Rabbit theorem shows that axiomatic proof may lead to nonsense conclusions/theorems
  • unlike proofs in gaṇita (which may only be approximately wrong, like science)

Why did valid axiomatic proof (of Rabbit theorem) lead to nonsense conclusions?

  • Because axiom 1 is false.
  • BUT it is EMPIRICALLY false: we can see so many animals right here who don't have two horns.
  • But if you accept empirical observation and seeing things as a a valid means of prof,
  • first expunge from the class IX text the statement: "Beware of what you see".
  • AND change the definition of axiomatic proof.

So, are all axioms in math empirically tested?

Axiomatic math = metaphysics, axioms can't be empirically tested

E.g. axiom of choice

  • Or take the axiom of choice for an UNCOUNTABLY infinite collection of sets.
  • (Can't be empirically tested, since uncountable infinity = pure metaphysics, like church theology.)
  • or any other "principle of transfinite induction" such as Zorn's lemma, Hausdorff maximality, or even continuum "hypothesis" \[2^ℵ₀ = c = #(ℝ)\]

Since axioms of math are metaphysics

  • their validity CANNOT be decided by empirical observation.
  • Validity of axioms can only be decided by authority: शब्द प्रमाण.
  • Whose authority? The West.
  • Theorems depend on axioms. So, math knowledge controlled by Western authority.

Prohibiting empirical suited theology since theorems decided purely by authority (शब्द प्रमाण)

  • In fact, any nonsense proposition whatsoever, e.g. Aquinas' angel theorem, can be and was proved axiomatically in theology.
  • To prove A just assume A or a B which is logically equivalent to (or implies A) as an axiom.
  • This greatly suited church theology which aimed to make people believe whatever was politically convenient.
  • But for us, it shows INFERIORITY of Christian theological axiomatic proof.

Ganita tied to प्रत्यक्ष, hence can't prove "anything you like"

  • This "prove anything you like" does NOT happen with gaṇita or scientific proof
  • that a valid proof (of e.g. Rabbit theorem) leads to nonsense conclusions.

Fallibility of empirical

  • Now it is accepted in Indian tradition that the empirical is fallible, that observation may lead to errors
  • रज्जु-सर्प न्याय, in bad light you may mistake a rope for a snake or vice versa.
  • Science too accepts this as in experimental errors.
  • But neither gaṇita nor science BANS empirical observation as axiomatic proof does.

What the school text ALSO hides: axiomatic proof highly fallible

  • People OFTEN make mistakes in complex deductive tasks.
  • Hence, students often make mistakes and flunk in math.
  • Game of chess is pure deduction
  • But EVERY human being almost EVERY time makes a mistake hence loses to a machine (mobile phone).
  • Far MORE frequent that OCCASIONAL mistake in observation (रज्जु सर्प न्याय)

So, "rigorous" = axiomatic proof INFERIOR because

  • 1. Any NONSENSE proposition WHATSOEVER can be axiomatically proved as a THEOREM by selecting convenient axioms (e.g. Rabbit theorem, Angel theorem).
  • 2. Axioms of math are metaphysics: CANNOT be empirically tested (e.g. invisible points, infinite lines, axiom of choice etc.)
  • 3. Axiomatic math makes West the boss.
    • IITs dare not even TRY my course "calculus without limits"
    • since math faculty scared boss would be angry.

Some people now change tactics

  • switch from claim of superior epistemology ("rigor")
  • to claim of superior practical value.

Objection: "they have sent a man to the moon"

  • FALSE, worthless objection.
  • Practical value of math does NOT come from the math which is taught.
  • E.g. practical value of geometry comes from measuring land to pay taxes, or estimate produce.
  • No one measures the area of a खेत using invisible points and invisible lines.

Floating point vs "real" numbers

  • Like wise to go the moon requires CALCULATION of rocket trajectories, done on a computer (or by hand)
  • a computer users floating point numbers
  • which do NOT obey even the most basic axioms of unreal axiomatic "real" numbers
  • such as the associative LAW for addition.

So, floating point numbers ≠ "reals"

  • But "reals" regarded as essential to teach calculus today.
  • So, calculus as taught today ≠ what is used for sending a man to the moon.

Rocket trajectories calculated using Āryabhaṭa's gaṇita method

  • of numerically solving ODEs.
  • as I also teach in my calculus course.
  • I realized the useless of teaching axiomatic "real" numbers
  • when I joined C-DAC in 1988 and actually computed rocket trajectories.
  • (Recall that earlier I used to teach real analysis and advanced functional analysis.)

Are IITians smart enough to see the difference between theory and praxis of calculus?

  • and knowledgeable enough to decide which is better even for practical value:
  • the metaphysics of West-dominated formal math
  • or the practical way of gaṇita?
  • I have serious doubts: Do you even know the axioms of "real" numbers?

Cape Town/JNU challenge: 1+1=2 test

  • "Axiomatically prove 1+1=2 in REAL numbers from first principles (WITHOUT assuming any theorem from axiomatic set theory)"
  • like Bertrand Russell's 378 page proof of 1+1=2 in cardinals.
  • In JNU I offered Rs 10 lakhs; in IIT, I offer 1 lakh if you turn in the proof by the end of the lecture.
  • BUT if you try and blunder like the Cape Town mathematician
  • You agree to leave IIT immediately, and forever.

Colonial education being church education stuffs you with lies from childhood

  • Lies about "Euclid" and the foundations of math
  • but also the lie that floating point numbers = real numbers
  • And now their weapons Wikipedia and Grok feed you numerous lies about history:
  • they know you are well trained gullible lie consumers
  • and intellectually too lazy to check facts.

Calculus origin and theft by Europeans

  • Calculus originated in India with the 5th century dalit Āryabhaṭa
  • who used finite differences to solve ordinary differential equations
  • and obtain sine and cosine values accurate to the first sexagesimal minute.

Q. Why no signs for integral and derivative in Indian calculus?

  • A. Not needed. Calculus about solving differential equations
  • calculus NOT about evaluating integrals and derivatives (ONLY of elementary functions) as IITians learn.
  • Don't learn non-elementary (e.g. Elliptic) function e.g. from pre-test for my calculus course.
  • To numerically solve differential equations finite differences (e.g. खंड्ज्या) enough.
  • No need for integral sign either: solution of \(y'=f(x)\) is $∫f(x)dx.$
  • Note: on the gaṇita method neither \(f\) nor \(∫ f\) need be an elementary function

Calculus theft

  • since theft is a criminal offense
  • my 2000/2001 keynote/paper,
  • and my 2007 book
  • used the standard of evidence in criminal law
  • viz. proof beyond reasonable doubt,
  • a standard never used earlier for history.
  • (History goes by the standard of proof in civil law: balance of probabilities.)

Calculus existed in India from the time of the 5th century dalit Āryabhaṭa

  • AND 7th century Brahmagupta
  • centuries before the Kerala school
  • and a th```ousand years before Newton.

There was

Epistemic test

  • Those who steal from others,
  • like students who cheat in an examination
  • do not FULLY understand what they steal,
  • proves "independent rediscovery" FALSE.
  • Thief Newton failed to FULLY understand the calculus he stole.

That Newton did not fully understand calculus is obvious

Because axiomatic "reals" so difficult

  • Hence my 1+1=2 challenge
  • Hence, California recently cancelled the teaching of calculus in schools (1,2)
  • Don't know what Trump will do!

Earlier critiques

  • Berkeley: "if you put something to zero at the end of a calculation, why not make it zero at the beginning"
  • Berkeley: "if you arrive at the right answer without knowing why, that is not science, it could be due to TWO mistakes, one canceling the other"
  • Karl Marx: "Newton's calculus is mystical" (= incomprehensible).

West extremely annoyed with my claim of calculus theft

  • summarized at a math conference last year in Australia.
  • Many newspaper attacks, in India, Soutb Africa etc. BUT
  • in 25 years not a single published academic response to my evidence.
  • Wikipedia and Grok etc. lie brazenly.
  • They KNOW that Indians trained to be gullible, will NEVER check facts.
  • WOW teaches to blindly "trust the West and distrust the non-West"
  • (also a Wikipedia principle) on which Grok trains.
  • they know that Indians foolishly changed their education system without checking the Macaulie in 2 centuries

What exactly did the West fail to understand in Indian calculus?

  • Failed to understand meaning of infinitesimal
  • and failed to understand how to sum infinite series.
  • (Understood how to numerically solve differential equations= Newtonian physics.)

Indian sum of infinite geometric series

What are infinitesimals?

  • Since there are many WOW fanatics here I will first give the WOW viewpoint.
  • in the 1960s Robinson introduced nonstandard analysis
  • this makes calculus easy, but learning nonstandard analysis is HARD
  • I learnt it as a kid for my PhD, used in paper on Dirac delta in my thesis
  • to improve calculus to understand nonlinear partial differential equations of physics at a discontinuity (shock wave)

Nonstandard transfer principle

  • Any standard result
  • derived using nonstandard analysis
  • could have been derived without using it
  • Non-standard analysis makes it easier, NOT different.

Non-Archimedean arithmetic

  • Essential feature of non-standard analysis
  • which I used in my PhD thesis was non-Archimedean arithmetic.
  • In axiomatic math this means arithmetic in ordered fields without "Archimedean" property.
  • (Name "Archimedean" is bogus, since early Greeks lacked fractions.)

"Archimedean" property (AP)

  • In an ordered field \(F\):
  • for any \(x ∈ F\), \(∃ n ∈ N\) s.t. \(x < n\)
  • (\(n= 1+1+...+1\) \(n\) times, where 1 is the multiplicative identity in \(F\).)
  • Axiomatic "reals" \(ℝ\) LARGEST ordered field with "Archimedean" property.

Infinities and infinitesimals (for WOW fanatics)

  • Nonstandard analysis defines

\(^*R\) a proper field extension of \(R\).

  • Hence, Archimedean Property FAILS in \(^*R\)
  • Hence \(^*R\) has infinities: \(∃ x ∈ ^*R\) s.t. \(x>n\) for every \(n∈ N\)
  • and infinitesimals:\(0 < \frac{1}{x} < \frac{1}{n}\) for every \(n∈ N\)
  • Hence, ε - δ limits NOT POSSIBLE.

Infinitesimals for DIFFERENT reason in Brahmagupta approach

  • Brahmagupta (7th c.) introduced polynomials
  • as अव्यक्त गणित (Brāhma Sphuṭa Siddhānta chp. 18)
  • later BADLY copied by al Khwarizmi in his al Jabr wa'al Muqabala
  • (=Algebra=forcible (jabr) solution by means of a contest (muqabala=equation).
  • e.g. Brahmagupta first solved quadratic equations BSS 18.44 (text, trans.)
  • But apart from algebra, there is POLYNOMIAL ARITHMETIC (class IX)
  • Polynomials can be added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided like ordinary numbers
  • that is avyakt gaṇita; avyakt bcoz numbers are not expressed.

For WOW fanatics

  • Polynomials constitute an integral domain
  • No zero divisors, since \(p(x).q(x)≡ 0\) only if \(p(x)≡ 0\) or $q(x) ≡ 0.$
  • This integral domain can be extended to a field of quotients in the usual way
  • whether coefficients of polynomials are "rationals" or "reals".

Ordering polynomials (defining a positive cone)

  • In this field of quotients (polynomial arithmetic)
  • we can define order as usual (WOW ppl see Moise).
  • As a NUMBER \(x-a\) may be both positive and negative
  • depending on the value of \(x\)
  • But as a POLYNOMIAL \(x-a\) positive if it is positive for sufficiently large \(x\).

Non-"Archimedean" arithmetic (Brahmagupta)

  • With the above formal definition, Archimedean property fails for polynomial arithmetic
  • since \(x-n > 0\) for every \(n ∈ N\)
  • hence \(x\) is infinite nd \[0 < \frac{1}{x}<\frac{1}{n} \] so \[\frac{1}{x}\] is infinitesimal.
  • With infinitesimals ε-̣δ limits impossible.
  • Hence, Indian calculus was calculus without limits.
  • Hence also completeness of polynomial arithmetic irrelevant
  • We can junk all courses on real analysis as irrelevant Western metaphysical FOOLISHNESS
  • like De Morgan's extreme foolishness about -9<0.
  • To reiterate: junk both baby Rudin and chacha Rudin.

Because of WOW syndrome we are afraid

  • of innovation, especially AGAINST the West.
  • Failure without trying reminds me of
  • E.g. C-DOT's failure in parallel supercomputing
  • E.g. Bharat GPT failure to use Indian calculus and Indian notions of probability.

Remember I am saying we should use gaṇita bcoz it is BETTER

  • NOT bcoz it is Indian.
  • So anyone else not suffering from WOW syndrome (China, Africa…)
  • can use it to develop better tech
  • and we will be left just saying "We did it first".

Concluding remarks

  • 2 questions and a suggestion
  • Q1. Why did the Europeans/West make such fools of themselves over primary-school arithmetic?
  • Till 20th c. (Hall and Knight, text on algebra "negative numbers impossible in arithmetic but possible in algebra".
  • Note Muslims grasped it relatively quickly ("Arabic numerals")

Q.1 Why European foolishness in arithmetic?

  • A.1: HUBRIS
  • They started believing their own self-aggrandizement:
  • Christian supremacy (4th c.) → White supremacy (17th c.) → Western supremacy (19th c.)
  • supported by false history ("Newton discovered calculus") etc.)
  • Hence clung to the belief that the pebble arithmetic
  • early Greeks learnt from Persians
  • was "superior".

Macualie

  • Q. 2. Why were WE so foolish as to believe the Macaulie
  • that the West was always "immeasurably superior" in math and science?
  • Refused to check it in 2 centuries!
  • Why are we still so foolish as to believe falsehoods from Wikipedia and AI bots
  • without checking them?

Suggestion

  • Ask your math faculty a Q. like I did
  • Why can't the course on calculus without limits even be TRIED in IIT?
  • When it has been taught in 5 univs in 3 countries?
  • They (math faculty) should
  • try it, or
  • PUBLICLY debate it
  • or quit their jobs!