According to an Alpha Galileo press release, Indians (those living in India, not those living in the Americas) may have discovered the infinite series sometime around 1350, a discovery commonly attributed to that 17th/18th century alchemist and magician, Sir Isaac Newton.
While one may do well to be somewhat cautious of claims like these, I for one would not be terribly surprised if the claims put forward by Dr George Gheverghese Joseph from The University of Manchester would actually turn out to be true. He also suggests that the Indian Kerala School, where the mathematical discovery was allegedly made before Newton, also knew about some other important mathematical concepts, begging to ask the question whether the birth of modern mathematics really happened in Europe after all.
As I said, I wouldn’t be all that surprised if it didn’t.
