History of the concept of Longitude and Latitude

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Dear All, I was just searching about the history of - the concept 'Longitude and Latitude'. I was wonder struck on knowing that this concpet is totally NEW to the western world and that prior to 15th century Amerigo Vespucci and 17th century Galileo and Halley they didn't had much awareness about this concept - and also that even by this period their understanding of the Longitude-Latitude co-ordinate system was very limited!!! Looking back to Indian astronomical history we find that, even in Ancient Surya Siddhanta (which dates back to "prior to BC 5th century") Longitude is termed "Lambamsa" and Latitude is termed "Akshamsa". We see that similar to the words Akshamsa-Lambamsa; the words "Charardha-Desandara" was also of popular use in astronomical literature- whether the author be Aryabhata or Varaha Mihira of 6th century BC. Desandara menas the distance (difference) between two specific longitudes; the distance between two places. Ancient Siddhantas (astronomical texts), and Puranas (ancient texts with collects and presents ancient knowledge in the form of story telling) mention/use these words to refer to locations. It becomes well evident that the concept of Longitude-Latitude originated in India! It seems that we should improve our understanding about the history of origin of this concept - as far as the history of astronomical and geographical concepts are concerned India deserves more credit that it is ascribed with! Love and regards,Sreenadh