"The influence of Cavalieri’s work on Torricelli and Roberval is well known. Roberval was a member of Mersenne’s discussion group, and was involved, along with Fermat and Pascal, in debating with Descartes, the validity of these new methods. There is a clear chain of influence from Cavalieri to Torricelli, to Wallis to Gregory and Newton. As is well known, while Newton acknowledged the influence of Wallis, Leibniz acknowledged the influence of Pascal on their respective works relating to the calculus. A diffusionist model for the calculus in Europe is, therefore, rather more appropriate than the simplistic Eurocentric model which gives all credit to Newton and/or Leibniz just because the two had a nasty priority dispute! There is further circumstantial evidence of transmission. The calculus methods of Cavalieri, Roberval, Fermat and Pascal are very similar to those of the Yuktsbhasd, TantrasangrahaVyakhya, Kriyakramakari."
C. K. Raju

January 1, 1970

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