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Some of the most fascinating mathematical developments in India in the 2nd millennium—indeed, in the history of mathematics as a whole—emerged from the now-famous school of Madhava in Kerala on the Malabar Coast, a key region of the international spice trade. Madhava himself worked near the end of the 14th century, and verses attributed to him in the writings of his successors testify to his brilliant contributions on such topics as infinite series and the use of infinitesimal quantities. The work of these mathematicians anticipated several discoveries of the later European analysts, including power series for the sine, cosine, and ...(100 of 3439 words)