From the Indus Civilization to

Srinivasa Ramanujan

A History of Indian
Mathematics

Indus Civilization 3000 BC

A highly sophisticated urban civilization

that died mysteriously around 3000 BC.

Indus Civilization 3000 BC

It stretched over a region of more

than a million square kilometers

(c)MSF

Indus Civilization 3000 BC

Lothal

An artists imagination based on archaeological inputs

Indus Civilization 3000 BC

Kalibangan

Indus Civilization 3000 BC

It comprised baked clay brick buildings,

highly developed sea and river ports

Indus Civilization 3000 BC

The degree of
advancements in science
and technology can be
gauged from the highly
evolved system of
plumbing and public baths
as well as from the
constructions of the cities
and the sophisticated seals
and sculptures that have
been found.

Practical Mathematics in the Indus Civilization

The people of the IVC demonstrated the use

of mathematics in their daily life such as:
They manufactured bricks
with dimensions in the
proportion 4:2:1 to lend
stability
of
a
brick
structure

 They used a standardized system of weights based on

the ratios: 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2,
200, 400, 500 and 800, with
approximately 13.63 grams.
weight was about 10.9 Kg
centigrams.

1, 2, 4, 10, 20, 40, 100,

the unit weight being
The heaviest known
and the lightest 85.1

The weights were made in regular geometrical shapes like

hexahedra, barrels, cones, and cylinders, thereby demonstrating
knowledge of basic geometry

How did they measure length?

One evidence is a scale with nine parallel
equidistant markings that is also indicative of
the decimal system.

Out of the graduated scales that were prepared,

only three survive. These scales do not conform to
each other indicating that probably, different
systems of linear measurement were in vogue.

Units of length
The Indus Foot
The Indus Yard

Both these lengths were a little more than their present

day versions.

The Great Bath at Mohenjo-Daro

Aerial View

Ground View

CITIES

The ruins of Mohenjo-Daro in the

Sindh province of Pakistan

SEALS

The problems
1. The script has not been deciphered

The problems
2. A great deal of plundering took place
in some of the most important sites

What has been found?

The sophistication of the civilization-ports,
magnificent brick buildings and cities.
Lothal

Dancing Girl

Mohenjo-Daro. 2500 B.C.

Ornaments

This collection of gold and agate ornaments includes objects

found at both Mohenjo-daro and Harappa.

Just around the time that the Indus

Civilization
disappeared
the
Vedic
Civilization began to evolve.

It is not clear as to what the links are between

the two but there is a great deal of
speculation.

The Vedic Civilization

and Mathematical
Discoveries
3000 BC onwards

The Vedic Civilization evolved around the

development and the practice of the Vedas.

Our interest is in the growth of

mathematics during that period.

The Sathpatha Brahmana: 900 BC

This text records the theorem

of Pythagoras 400 years
before Pythagoras.

The Sulba Sutras

Sulba means pieces of chord or string

Sutra formula or aphorism

The Sulba Sutras are the mathematical discoveries
made by famous mathematicians at about 1000 BC
to 200 BC, using a piece of chord for constructions
of various fire sacrifice altars.

(c)MSF

The Sulba Sutras

Baudhayana : 800 BC
Baudhayana was the author of one of the
earliest Sulbasutras.

Baudhayana discovered a proof of the

Theorem of Pythagoras.
It is a recorded fact that Pythagoras who lived
around 500 BC visited India and interacted with
Indian Mathematicians and scholars. In fact Indian
tradition records that he turned vegetarian under
the influence of Jainism after visiting India.

Franois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1774)

Pythagoras
of Samos

I am convinced that everything has

come down to us from the banks of the
Ganga

Astronomy,
Astrology,
Spiritualism, etc.
It is very important to note that 2,500
years ago at least Pythagoras went
from Samos to the Ganga to learn
Geometry ..
But he would certainly not have
undertaken such a strange journey had
the reputation of the Brahmins science
not been long established in Europe
..

Katyayana : 200 BC
Katyayana was the author of one of
the Sulba Sutras

The Sulba Sutras

From the Katyayana Sulba Sutra

Click here for a proof of The Theorem of Pythagoras

Irrational Numbers in the Sulba Sutras

In all the extant Sulba Sutras, we find clear mention
of the following numbers
2 , 3 , 1 These num bers were given specific nam es
3
They had also calculated a value of
1
1
1
2 1

1.4142156
3 3 4 3 4 34
which is correct to 5 decim al places

Panini 520 BC
A postal ticket
released after Panini

Panini was a Sanskrit grammarian who gave a

comprehensive and scientific theory of phonetics,
phonology, and morphology.
Panini invented a perfect Sanskrit grammar.
He used the concept of zero.

Pingal : 200 BC
Pingal was a prosodist.
He was trying to invent new meters from the
known Vedic meters such as the Gayatri,
Anustabh, Brhati by varying the syllables through
permutations and combinations of long and short
sounds.
This led him to discover the Meru Prastara in 200
BC which is now known as Pascals Triangle,
discovered by Pascal 1800 years after Pingal. He
wrote this in his book the Chandah Sutra

Meru Prastara: Pingalas discovery in 200 BC

Halayudh : 1200 AD
Halayudh wrote a commentary on Pingals
work and in the process discovered the
Binomial Theorem 400 years before Newton.

n n 1 1
n n 1 n
ab b
(a b) a a b ...
1
n 1
n

Jain and Buddhist Mathematics Before Christ

Returning to the time of the advent of Christ, it is well
known that Jaina and Buddhist mathematics had
evolved with sophistication.
They could represent large numbers-unlike
the Greeks-such as

10 53 , (8400000 ) 28
They (Jains) knew the laws of indices

m n

; (a ) a
m

mn

There is evidence that the Jain mathematicians understood

different orders of infinity thereby anticipating in many ways the
great discoveries of Georg Cantor.

The Bakshali Manuscript

An early mathematical manuscript, written on birch
bark and found in the summer of 1881 near the village
of Bakhshali then in India and now in Pakistan.
A large part of the manuscript had been destroyed
and only about 70 leaves of birch bark, of which a few
were mere scraps, survived to the time of its discovery.
The manuscript is dated to 300 AD and is a
commentary on an earlier mathematical work .
Gives clear evidence of the use of the decimal system

The Discovery of the Bakhshali Manuscript

A tenant on a piece of land discovered the manuscript while
digging a stone enclosure in a ruined place.

This was during the time of the British rule in India so eventually
the manuscript landed in England and now resides in Oxford.
A photo image of the Bakhshali manuscript is housed in the
National Museum in New Delhi

Evolution of Numerals:
Indias Contribution

Brahmi Numerals: Around the Time of Christ

Progression of Brahmi number forms through the centuries

(column far left showing forms in use by 500 AD)

Numeral forms found in Bakhshali Manuscript

showing place value and use of zero

Fractions in Bakshali Manuscripts

3 1+
4 2

means

3 - 1
4
2

An unusual feature is the sign + placed after a

number to indicate a negative.

Some Contents of the Bakhshali Manuscript

Solution of linear equations with as many as five unknowns.
Quadratic equations with solutions.

Progressions: Both arithmetic and geometric.

Simultaneous equations.

Fractions and other advances in notation including use of zero

and negative sign.
A remarkable method to compute square roots (useful in
approximating irrational numbers)

Square root in Bakshali Manuscript

Q = (A2 + b) = A + b/2A - (b/2A)2/(2(A + b/2A))
This is stated in the manuscript as follows:-

In the case of a non-square number, subtract the nearest

square number, divide the remainder by twice this nearest
square; half the square of this is divided by the sum of the
approximate root and the fraction. This is subtracted and will
give the corrected root.

(c)MSF

Aryabhata I : 476 AD
Aryabhata I wrote the
Aryabhatiya which
summarizes Hindu
mathematics up to that 6th
Century.

He was 21 years of age when

he wrote the Aryabhatiya. In
this monumental work he
records many important
discoveries in mathematics
and astronomy.

Aryabhats Discoveries:
1. The earth is round and revolves around its axis.
In fact Aryabhat said that the earth is as spherical
in shape as the kernel of the flower of the
Kadamb Tree.
2. He also said that the sun appears go around the
earth when in fact it is the earth that revolves
and he said this was similar to a situation where a
passenger in a boat on a river will feel that the
trees on the banks of the river will appear to be
moving in opposite direction whereas it is the
boat that is moving.

3. He discovered the value of pi correct to four

decimal places.
3. Aryabhat gave methods of finding square roots
and cube roots.
4. He was the first mathematician in the world to
give a general solution of the indeterminate
equation of first degree:
by = ax c, where x and y are unknowns.
5. He put Indian astronomy on firm mathematical
foundation.

Brahmagupta : 598 AD 670 AD

Brahmagupta was the
foremost Indian
mathematician of his time.
He made advances in
astronomy and most
importantly in number
systems including algorithms
for square roots and the
solution of quadratic
equations.

Some of the achievements of Brahamagupta are:

1. He solved the equation

y Nx 1
2

where x and y are unknown. This equation was later

named by Euler as the Pells equation.
2. Discovered a formula for the area of a cyclic
quadrilateral.

3. Discovered formulae for determining the diagonals of a

cyclic quadrilateral in terms of its sides.

4. He was the first to obtain formulas for the sum of

squares and cubes of first n natural numbers in the
form:

nn 1 2n 1
1 2 n
2
3
2

nn 1
1 2 n

Trigonometry in India (300 A.D. onwards)

Surya Siddhanta unknown author; Founder of
modern trigonometry
It makes distinctive uses of the modern
trigonometric functions:
Sine (Jya)
Cosine (kojya)
Inverse sine (otkram jya)
Tangent
Secant

 A sidereal year was computed as

365.2563627 days, which is only 1.4
seconds longer than the modern
value of 365.2563627 days.
A tropical year was computed as
365.2421756 days, which is only 2
seconds shorter than the modern
value of 365.2421988 days.

Bhaskara II
1114 AD - 1185
Bhaskara II or
Bhaskaracharya was
one of Indias greatest
mathematicians who
made numerous
important discoveries
including the discovery
of the Calculus

Bhskara II was a distinguished mathematician and

an astronomer who worked in major areas of
mathematics. His contributions to various areas of
mathematics include :

Proof for division by zero being infinity

Was the first to observe that a positive
number has two square roots
Properties of Surds
Operations with products of several
unknowns

The solutions of Quadratic, Cubic

and Quartic equations
Equations with more than one
unknown
Quadratic equations with more than

one unknown

 Discovery of the derivative

Called the derivative tatkalika gati
(instantaneous velocity)
He showed that the derivative of the sine
function is cosine
Discovered Rolle's theorem
-a special case of the mean value
theorem

 Gave the chakravala (cyclic) method to

solve the general form of Pell's equation.
Was the first to use symbols for unknowns
in algebra.
Computation of , correct to 5 decimal
places
Discovered the trigonometric formulae
sina b sina cos b cos a sinb
sina b sina cos b sinb cos a

Vasco da Gama
An adventurer
not a navigator

Sailed to India from Europe : 1497 - 1499

His navigator was an Indian :

Named Kanha

Vasco da Gama & Kanha

Used an instrument called Kamal or Rapalagai
to determine the latitude at sea

This instrument involves a harmonic scale with knots on a string to

measure angular elevation of pole star above the horizon for
measuring local latitude
(c)MSF

Bhaskara I knew the method of determining

longitude from time difference

Mechanical Clock
Revolutionized the
sea navigation in
17th century
This lead to the invention of

CHRONOMETER

Madhava of Sangamagramma
1350 AD - 1425 AD
Madhavacharya was a
mathematician
from
South India. He made
major discoveries in
calculus
including
important advances in
infinite series expansions
for
trigonometric
functions.

There are a number of credits to

Madhavas name like:
The discovery of the
expansion of tan 1 x
called the Gregorys series
The expression

power series
which today is

1 1 1
1
4
3 5 7

Computed
an
extremely
close
approximation of as 3.14159265359

Srinivas Ramanujan
1887 1920 AD

House of Srinivas Ramanujan

Ramanujan was a self taught genius.

He made numerous deep and extra
ordinary discoveries.
We will present only two of them over
here.

We all know the prime numbers.

2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13,
Prime numbers are extremely important in Number
Theory.

Long ago mathematicians realized that one can not

have a polynomial formula that gives prime numbers.
From the time of Gauss they began to see how prime
numbers occur amongst all natural numbers.

Gauss looked at the following function:

(n)
Which counts the number of primes less than or equal
to n.

n
He conjectured that
( n) ~
log n
It took some of the greatest European mathematicians
to finally prove in 1898 that the conjecture was true.
What was Ramanujans connection with this theorem
known as the Prime Number Theorem?

Partitions and Ramanujan

A partition of a natural number n is a representation of n
as a sum of positive integers.

The order of the summands is not relevant.

Example:
5=5
=4+1
=3+2
=3+1+1
=2+2+1
=2+1+1+1
=1+1+1+1+1

So,
P(5) = 7

P(n) increases very rapidly with n.

P(200) = 3,972,999,029,388

Ramanujan showed
P (5n + 4) is always a multiple of 5.
In fact Hardy and Ramanujan actually gave a precise
formula for p(n).

G. H. Hardy : 1877
G. H. (Godfrey Harold)
Hardy was a prominent
English Mathematician,
known
for
his
achievements
in
number theory and
mathematical analysis.

1729

Taxi Cab Number

The smallest number representable in two
ways as a sum of two cubes. It is given by

1729 = 13 + 123 = 93 + 103

Thanks