when Sultan Mahmood Ghaznawi conquered his homeland, he took al-Biruni along with him in his journeys to India several times and thus he had the opportunity to travel all over India during a period of 20 years. He learnt Hindu philosophy, mathematics, geography and religion from thre Pandits to whom he taught Greek and Arabic science and philosophy. He died in 1048 C.E. at the age of 75, after having spent 40 years in thus gathering knowledge and making his own original contributions to it.
He recorded observations of his travels through India in his well-known book Kitab al-Hind which gives a graphic account of the historical and social conditions of the sub-continent. At the end of this book he makes a mention of having translated two Sanskrit books into Arabic, one called Sakaya, which deals with the creation of things and their types, and the second, Patanjal dealing with what happens after the spirit leaves the body. His descriptions of India were so complete that even the Aein-i-Akbari written by Abu-al- Fadal during the reign of Akbar, 600 years later, owes a great deal to al-Biruni's book. He observed that the Indus valley must be considered as an ancient sea basin filled up with alluvials.
Though the information about this period is scanty, it appears that Biruni served as a major catalyst in the exchange of East-West knowledge and philosophies early in the eleventh century. Biruni went into greater depth in his study of Indian religion, philosophy and literature than anyone before or after him. As far as we know, Biruni was the first scholar to study the Puranas, vast collections of Indian stories about myths and gods. He was familiar with the Mahabharata, with its account of a great war, and the Bahagavad Gita finding it, as many others past and present, a guide to understanding the complex Indian religion.
Despite Biruni's unparalleled knowledge of Indian science, religion, and geography, his work in India had very little influence until the Persian historian Rashid-al-Din used it as a major reference in his book on the history of the world written in 1305. Not for over eight hundred years would another writer examine India with such thoroughness and understanding.
