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The famous astrophysicist and popular science writer Jayant Narlikar reviews Indian science across the millennia, distinguishing fact from fiction. What aspects should we be proud of, and what red herrings (like "Vedic Mathematics") should we carefully shun?

The mathematics that was not quite Vedic

Narilkar is particularly scathing about the sutras introduced by the late Shankacharya of Puri, Bharati Krishna Tirtha maharaj, in his widely read book Vedic Mathematics, in that there exists no primary vedic text where these so called "sutras" appear. On the other hand, as original work, they certainly do not add anything to mathematical knowledge (unlike, for example, the diary scribblings of Srinivasa Ramanujan).

The formulas in the book are claimed to be "vedic", with a source in the
Atharva Veda, but they appear to have been actually formulated by Krishna
Tirtha maharaj himself:

	K.S. Shukla, a renowned scholar of ancient Indian mathematics...
	recalled meeting Swamiji, showing him an authorized edition of
	Atharva Veda and pointing out that the sixteen sutras were not in
	any of its appendices (parishiShTas).  Swamiji is said to have
	replied that they occurred in his parishiShTa and in no other!  In
	short, Swamiji claimed the sutras to be Vedic on his own authority and
	no other. p.27 [incident narrated by SG Dani of TIFR]

Narlikar goes on to comment that "no one, howsoever exalted, has the right or
privilege to add anything supplementary to the Vedas and claim it is as
authentic as the Vedas themselves, or else there is no authenticity left in
any [original] part of the Vedas."

Another problem with the sutras is that some of them deal with topics like
recurring decimal expansions of fractions such as 1/29; such fractions were
almost certainly not known in vedic times.

quotes from bhAskara's lIlAvati

  Half the square root of a swarm of bees went to a Malati tree,
  followed by another eight ninth of the total.  One bee was trapped
  inside a lotus flower, while his mate came humming in response to his
  call.  O Lady, tell me how many bees were there in all?  
		- Lilavati, q. in Narlikar, Sci Edge p.11