Mathematics represents one of the supreme achievements of the human mind. The subject has fascinated thinkers throughout the ages, from the ancient civilisations of five thousand years ago to those of the present day. It is an evolving, living discipline; the boundaries of mathematics have expanded way beyond the geometry and number theory of the Greeks and the algebra of the early Indians and of Islam. Mathematics was called "the Queen of the Sciences" by one of its greatest practitioners, C F Gauss.