Mathematical foundations of a cultural project or Ramchandra's treatise ``Through the unsentimentalised light of mathematics'' (Q1206486)

The history of non-Western mathematics normally concentrates on its high points in ancient and medieval times; the conversion of such countries to Western mathematics in the 19th century is much less studied. This book describes a `Treatise on the problems of maxima and minima' by Y. Ramchandra. Published in India in 1850 (and so relatively early in the reform process), it was reprinted in London nine years later, apparently unchanged except for a long contribution by A. de Morgan. The author describes Ramchandra's methods used to maximise polynomials of low degree by analysis of the discriminant rather than by normal calculus techniques.