"[I]n the history of ancient India... primary schools... existed in earliest times, and of the seventy-two recognized sciences writing and arithmetic were the most prized. In the Vedic period [~]2000 to 1400 B.C., there was the same attention to astronomy that was found in the earlier civilizations of Babylon, China, and Egypt... Such advance... presupposes a fair knowledge of calculation, but of the manner of calculating we are quite ignorant..."