Subhankari: An Indigenous Tradition of Elementary Mathematical Instruction

This book, as its title suggests, is about Subhankari–an almost forgotten tradition of computation prevailing in precolonial Bengal. It deals with quite a number of things : the science and art of Subhankari computation, the nature of the prevailing units of measure and currency, the teaching of computation in schools, the non-utilitarian aspects of Subhankari, the social and cultural context of Subhankari and how the latter incorporated earlier Indian mathematical concepts and mores. Although the work is declaredly suggestive rather than exhaustive, the author goes into substantial detail in explaining the units of measure and currency and Subhankari computational procedures. The work should command the interest of historians and anthropologists concerned with popular computational traditions.