Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/59

 school of Hero (215 B. C.). The Sulva sútras, however, date from about the 8th century B. C., and Dr. Thibaut has shown that the geometrical theorem of the 47th proposition, Bk. I., which tradition ascribes to Pythagoras, was solved by the Hindus at least two centuries earlier, thus confirming the conclusion of v. Schroeder that the Greek philosopher owed his inspiration to India. Nor must we forget that the most scientific grammar that the world has ever produced, with its alphabet based on thoroughly phonetic principles, was composed in India about the 7th or 8th century B. C. As Professor Macdonell remarks: "we Europeans..............................2500 years later, and in a scientific age, still employ an alphabet which is not only inadequate to represent all the sounds of our