Maths

Aryabhata
Aryabhata, आर्यभट (IAST: Āryabhaṭa) or Aryabhata I (476–550 CE) was the first of the
major mathematician-astronomers from the classical age
of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. His works include
the Āryabhaṭīya (which mentions that in 3600 Kaliyuga, 499 CE,
he was 23 years old) and the Arya-siddhanta.
For his explicit mention of the relativity of motion, he also
qualifies as a major early physicist.

Biography
Name
While there is a tendency to misspell his name as "Aryabhatta"
by analogy with other names having the "bhatta" suffix, his
name is properly spelled Aryabhata: every astronomical text
spells his name thus, including Brahmagupta's references to
him "in more than a hundred places by name". Furthermore, in most instances "Aryabhatta"
would not fit the meter either.
Time and place of birth
Aryabhata mentions in the Aryabhatiya that he was 23 years old 3,600 years into the Kali Yuga,
but this is not to mean that the text was composed at that time. This mentioned year
corresponds to 499 CE, and implies that he was born in 476. Aryabhata called himself a native
of Kusumapura or Pataliputra (present day Patna, Bihar).
Other hypothesis
Bhāskara I describes Aryabhata as āśmakīya, "one belonging to the Aśmaka country." During
the Buddha's time, a branch of the Aśmaka people settled in the region between
the Narmada and Godavari rivers in central India.
It has been claimed that the aśmaka (Sanskrit for "stone") where Aryabhata originated may be
the present day Kodungallur which was the historical capital city of Thiruvanchikkulamof
ancient Kerala. This is based on the belief that Koṭuṅṅallūr was earlier known as Koṭum-Kal-l-
ūr ("city of hard stones"); however, old records show that the city was actually Koṭum-kol-ūr
("city of strict governance"). Similarly, the fact that several commentaries on the Aryabhatiya
have come from Kerala has been used to suggest that it was Aryabhata's main place of life
and activity; however, many commentaries have come from outside Kerala, and the
Aryasiddhanta was completely unknown in Kerala. K. Chandra Hari has argued for the Kerala
hypothesis on the basis of astronomical evidence.
Aryabhata mentions "Lanka" on several occasions in the Aryabhatiya, but his "Lanka" is an
abstraction, standing for a point on the equator at the same longitude as his Ujjayini.
Education
It is fairly certain that, at some point, he went to Kusumapura for advanced studies and lived
there for some time. Both Hindu and Buddhist tradition, as well as Bhāskara I (CE 629), identify
Kusumapura as Pāṭaliputra, modern Patna. A verse mentions that Aryabhata was the head of
an institution (kulapa) at Kusumapura, and, because the university of Nalanda was in
Pataliputra at the time and had an astronomical observatory, it is speculated that Aryabhata
might have been the head of the Nalanda university as well. Aryabhata is also reputed to have
set up an observatory at the Sun temple in Taregana, Bihar.
Works
Aryabhata is the author of several treatises on mathematics and astronomy, some of which are
lost.

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His major work, Aryabhatiya, a compendium of mathematics and astronomy, was extensively
referred to in the Indian mathematical literature and has survived to modern times. The
mathematical part of the Aryabhatiya covers arithmetic, algebra, plane trigonometry,
and spherical trigonometry. It also contains continued fractions, quadratic equations, sums-of-
power series, and a table of sines.
The Arya-siddhanta, a lost work on astronomical computations, is known through the writings
of Aryabhata's contemporary, Varahamihira, and later mathematicians and commentators,
including Brahmagupta and Bhaskara I. This work appears to be based on the older Surya
Siddhanta and uses the midnight-day reckoning, as opposed to sunrise in Aryabhatiya. It also
contained a description of several astronomical instruments: the gnomon (shanku-yantra), a
shadow instrument (chhAyA-yantra), possibly angle-measuring devices, semicircular and
circular (dhanur-yantra / chakra-yantra), a cylindrical stick yasti-yantra, an umbrella-shaped
device called the chhatra-yantra, and water clocks of at least two types, bow-shaped and
cylindrical.
A third text, which may have survived in the Arabic translation, is Al ntf or Al-nanf. It claims
that it is a translation by Aryabhata, but the Sanskrit name of this work is not known. Probably
dating from the 9th century, it is mentioned by the Persian scholar and chronicler of India, Abū
Rayhān al-Bīrūnī.

Aryabhatiya
Direct details of Aryabhata's work are known only from the Aryabhatiya. The name
"Aryabhatiya" is due to later commentators. Aryabhata himself may not have given it a name.
His disciple Bhaskara I calls it Ashmakatantra (or the treatise from the Ashmaka). It is also
occasionally referred to as Arya-shatas-aShTa (literally, Aryabhata's 108), because there are
108 verses in the text. It is written in the very terse style typical of sutra literature, in which
each line is an aid to memory for a complex system. Thus, the explication of meaning is due to
commentators. The text consists of the 108 verses and 13 introductory verses, and is divided
into four pādas or chapters:
Gitikapada: (13 verses): large units of time—kalpa, manvantra, and yuga—which present a
cosmology different from earlier texts such as Lagadha's Vedanga Jyotisha (c. 1st century
BCE). There is also a table of sines (jya), given in a single verse. The duration of the planetary
revolutions during a mahayuga is given as 4.32 million years.
Ganitapada (33 verses): covering mensuration (kṣetra vyāvahāra), arithmetic and geometric
progressions, gnomon / shadows (shanku-chhAyA), simple, quadratic, simultaneous,
and indeterminate equations (kuṭṭaka).
Kalakriyapada (25 verses): different units of time and a method for determining the positions
of planets for a given day, calculations concerning the intercalary month
(adhikamAsa), kShaya-tithis, and a seven-day week with names for the days of week.
Golapada (50 verses): Geometric/trigonometric aspects of the celestial sphere, features of
the ecliptic, celestial equator, node, shape of the earth, cause of day and night, rising
of zodiacal signs on horizon, etc. In addition, some versions cite a few colophons added at the
end, extolling the virtues of the work, etc.
The Aryabhatiya presented a number of innovations in mathematics and astronomy in verse
form, which were influential for many centuries. The extreme brevity of the text was elaborated
in commentaries by his disciple Bhaskara I (Bhashya, c. 600 CE) and by Nilakantha
Somayaji in his Aryabhatiya Bhasya, (1465 CE).
The Aryabhatiya is also remarkable for its description of relativity of motion. He expressed this
relativity thus: "Just as a man in a boat moving forward sees the stationary objects (on the
shore) as moving backward, just so are the stationary stars seen by the people on earth as
moving exactly towards the west."

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Mathematics
Place value system and zero
The place-value system, first seen in the 3rd-century Bakhshali Manuscript, was clearly in
place in his work. While he did not use a symbol for zero, the French mathematician Georges
Ifrah argues that knowledge of zero was implicit in Aryabhata's place-value system as a place
holder for the powers of ten with null coefficients.
However, Aryabhata did not use the Brahmi numerals. Continuing the Sanskritic tradition
from Vedic times, he used letters of the alphabet to denote numbers, expressing quantities,
such as the table of sines in a mnemonic form.
Approximation of π
Aryabhata worked on the approximation for pi (π), and may have come to the conclusion that
π is irrational. In the second part of the Aryabhatiyam (gaṇitapāda 10), he writes:
caturadhikaṃ śatamaṣṭaguṇaṃ dvāṣaṣṭistathā sahasrāṇām
ayutadvayaviṣkambhasyāsanno vṛttapariṇāhaḥ.
"Add four to 100, multiply by eight, and then add 62,000. By this rule the circumference of a
circle with a diameter of 20,000 can be approached."
This implies that the ratio of the circumference to the diameter is ((4 + 100) × 8 + 62000)/20000
= 62832/20000 = 3.1416, which is accurate to five significant figures.
It is speculated that Aryabhata used the word āsanna (approaching), to mean that not only is
this an approximation but that the value is incommensurable (or irrational). If this is correct, it
is quite a sophisticated insight, because the irrationality of pi (π) was proved in Europe only in
1761 by Lambert.
After Aryabhatiya was translated into Arabic (c. 820 CE) this approximation was mentioned
in Al-Khwarizmi's book on algebra.
Trigonometry
In Ganitapada 6, Aryabhata gives the area of a triangle as
tribhujasya phalaśarīraṃ samadalakoṭī bhujārdhasaṃvargaḥ
that translates to: "for a triangle, the result of a perpendicular with the half-side is the area."
Aryabhata discussed the concept of sine in his work by the name of ardha-jya, which literally
means "half-chord". For simplicity, people started calling it jya. When Arabic writers translated
his works from Sanskrit into Arabic, they referred it as jiba. However, in Arabic writings,
vowels are omitted, and it was abbreviated as jb. Later writers substituted it with jaib, meaning
"pocket" or "fold (in a garment)". (In Arabic, jiba is a meaningless word.) Later in the 12th
century, when Gherardo of Cremona translated these writings from Arabic into Latin, he
replaced the Arabic jaib with its Latin counterpart, sinus, which means "cove" or "bay"; thence
comes the English word sine.
Indeterminate equations
A problem of great interest to Indian mathematicians since ancient times has been to find
integer solutions to Diophantine equations that have the form ax + by = c. (This problem was
also studied in ancient Chinese mathematics, and its solution is usually referred to as
the Chinese remainder theorem.) This is an example from Bhāskara's commentary on
Aryabhatiya:
Find the number which gives 5 as the remainder when divided by 8, 4 as the remainder when
divided by 9, and 1 as the remainder when divided by 7
That is, find N = 8x+5 = 9y+4 = 7z+1. It turns out that the smallest value for N is 85. In general,
diophantine equations, such as this, can be notoriously difficult. They were discussed
extensively in ancient Vedic text Sulba Sutras, whose more ancient parts might date to 800
BCE. Aryabhata's method of solving such problems, elaborated by Bhaskara in 621 CE, is

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called the kuṭṭaka (कुट्टक) method. Kuṭṭaka means "pulverizing" or "breaking into small pieces",
and the method involves a recursive algorithm for writing the original factors in smaller
numbers. This algorithm became the standard method for solving first-order diophantine
equations in Indian mathematics, and initially the whole subject of algebra was called kuṭṭaka-
gaṇita or simply kuṭṭaka.
Algebra
In Aryabhatiya, Aryabhata provided elegant results for the summation of series of squares and
cubes.

Astronomy
Aryabhata's system of astronomy was called the audAyaka system, in which days are
reckoned from uday, dawn at lanka or "equator". Some of his later writings on astronomy,
which apparently proposed a second model (or ardha-rAtrikA, midnight) are lost but can be
partly reconstructed from the discussion in Brahmagupta's Khandakhadyaka. In some texts,
he seems to ascribe the apparent motions of the heavens to the Earth's rotation. He may have
believed that the planet's orbits as elliptical rather than circular.
Motions of the solar system
Aryabhata correctly insisted that the earth rotates about its axis daily, and that the apparent
movement of the stars is a relative motion caused by the rotation of the earth, contrary to the
then-prevailing view, that the sky rotated. This is indicated in the first chapter of
the Aryabhatiya, where he gives the number of rotations of the earth in a yuga, and made more
explicit in his gola chapter:
In the same way that someone in a boat going forward sees an unmoving [object] going
backward, so [someone] on the equator sees the unmoving stars going uniformly westward.
The cause of rising and setting [is that] the sphere of the stars together with the planets
[apparently?] turns due west at the equator, constantly pushed by the cosmic wind.
Aryabhata described a geocentric model of the solar system, in which the Sun and Moon are
each carried by epicycles. They in turn revolve around the Earth. In this model, which is also
found in the Paitāmahasiddhānta (c. CE 425), the motions of the planets are each governed by
two epicycles, a smaller manda (slow) and a larger śīghra (fast). The order of the planets in
terms of distance from earth is taken as: the Moon, Mercury, Venus,
the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the asterisms."
The positions and periods of the planets was calculated relative to uniformly moving points. In
the case of Mercury and Venus, they move around the Earth at the same mean speed as the
Sun. In the case of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, they move around the Earth at specific speeds,
representing each planet's motion through the zodiac. Most historians of astronomy consider
that this two-epicycle model reflects elements of pre-Ptolemaic Greek astronomy. Another
element in Aryabhata's model, the śīghrocca, the basic planetary period in relation to the Sun,
is seen by some historians as a sign of an underlying heliocentric model.
Eclipses
Solar and lunar eclipses were scientifically explained by Aryabhata. He states that
the Moon and planets shine by reflected sunlight. Instead of the prevailing cosmogony in
which eclipses were caused by Rahu and Ketu (identified as the pseudo-planetary lunar
nodes), he explains eclipses in terms of shadows cast by and falling on Earth. Thus, the lunar
eclipse occurs when the Moon enters into the Earth's shadow (verse gola.37). He discusses at
length the size and extent of the Earth's shadow (verses gola.38–48) and then provides the
computation and the size of the eclipsed part during an eclipse. Later Indian astronomers
improved on the calculations, but Aryabhata's methods provided the core. His computational
paradigm was so accurate that 18th-century scientist Guillaume Le Gentil, during a visit to
Pondicherry, India, found the Indian computations of the duration of the lunar eclipse of 30
August 1765 to be short by 41 seconds, whereas his charts (by Tobias Mayer, 1752) were long
by 68 seconds.

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Sidereal periods
Considered in modern English units of time, Aryabhata calculated the sidereal rotation (the
rotation of the earth referencing the fixed stars) as 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.1 seconds; the
modern value is 23:56:4.091. Similarly, his value for the length of the sidereal year at 365 days,
6 hours, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds (365.25858 days) is an error of 3 minutes and 20 seconds
over the length of a year (365.25636 days).
Heliocentrism
As mentioned, Aryabhata advocated an astronomical model in which the Earth turns on its
own axis. His model also gave corrections (the śīgra anomaly) for the speeds of the planets in
the sky in terms of the mean speed of the Sun. Thus, it has been suggested that Aryabhata's
calculations were based on an underlying heliocentric model, in which the planets orbit the
Sun though this has been rebutted. It has also been suggested that aspects of Aryabhata's
system may have been derived from an earlier, likely pre-Ptolemaic Greek, heliocentric model
of which Indian astronomers were unaware, though the evidence is scant. The general
consensus is that a synodic anomaly (depending on the position of the Sun) does not imply a
physically heliocentric orbit (such corrections being also present in late Babylonian
astronomical texts), and that Aryabhata's system was not explicitly heliocentric.
Legacy
Aryabhata's work was of great influence in the Indian astronomical tradition and influenced
several neighbouring cultures through translations. The Arabic translation during the Islamic
Golden Age (c. 820 CE), was particularly influential. Some of his results are cited by Al-
Khwarizmi and in the 10th century Al-Biruni stated that Aryabhata's followers believed that the
Earth rotated on its axis.
His definitions of sine (jya), cosine (kojya), versine (utkrama-jya), and inverse sine (otkram jya)
influenced the birth of trigonometry. He was also the first to specify sine
and versine (1 − cos x) tables, in 3.75° intervals from 0° to 90°, to an accuracy of 4 decimal
places.
In fact, modern names "sine" and "cosine" are mistranscriptions of the words jya and kojya as
introduced by Aryabhata. As mentioned, they were translated as jiba and kojiba in Arabic and
then misunderstood by Gerard of Cremona while translating an Arabic geometry text to Latin.
He assumed that jibawas the Arabic word jaib, which means "fold in a garment", L. sinus (c.
1150).
Aryabhata's astronomical calculation methods were also very influential. Along with the
trigonometric tables, they came to be widely used in the Islamic world and used to compute
many Arabic astronomical tables (zijes). In particular, the astronomical tables in the work of
the Arabic Spain scientist Al-Zarqali (11th century) were translated into Latin as the Tables of
Toledo (12th century) and remained the most accurate ephemeris used in Europe for
centuries. Calendric calculations devised by Aryabhata and his followers have been in
continuous use in India for the practical purposes of fixing the Panchangam (the Hindu
calendar). In the Islamic world, they formed the basis of the Jalali calendar introduced in 1073
CE by a group of astronomers including Omar Khayyam, versions of which (modified in 1925)
are the national calendars in use in Iran and Afghanistan today. The dates of the Jalali
calendar are based on actual solar transit, as in Aryabhata and earlier Siddhanta calendars.
This type of calendar requires an ephemeris for calculating dates. Although dates were
difficult to compute, seasonal errors were less in the Jalali calendar than in the Gregorian
calendar.Aryabhatta Knowledge University (AKU), Patna has been established by Government
of Bihar for the development and management of educational infrastructure related to
technical, medical, management and allied professional education in his honour. The
university is governed by Bihar State University Act 2008.India's first satellite Aryabhata and
the lunar crater Aryabhata are named in his honour. An Institute for conducting research in
astronomy, astrophysics and atmospheric sciences is the Aryabhatta Research Institute of
Observational Sciences (ARIES) near Nainital, India. The inter-school Aryabhata Maths
Competition is also named after him, as is Bacillus aryabhata, a species of bacteria discovered
in the stratosphere by ISRO scientists in 2009.

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Varāhamihira
Varāhamihira (c. early 6th-century), also called Vārāha or Mihira, was a Hindu polymath who
lived in Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh, India). He was born in the Avanti region, roughly
corresponding to modern-day Malwa, to Adityadasa, who was himself an astronomer.
According to one of his own works, he was educated at Kapitthaka. The Indian tradition
believes him to be one of the "Nine Jewels" (Navaratnas) of the court of legendary
ruler Yashodharman Vikramaditya of Malwa. However, this claim appears for the first time in a
much later text and scholars consider this claim to be doubtful because neither Vihiramihira
and Vikramaditya lived in the same century nor did Varahamihira live in the same century as
some of the other names in the "nine jewels" list such as the much older Kalidasa.
Varahamihira's most notable work was Brihat Samhita, an encyclopedic work on architecture,
temples, planetary motions, eclipses, timekeeping, astrology, seasons, cloud formation,
rainfall, agriculture, mathematics, gemology, perfumes and many other topics. According to
Varahamihira, in some verses he was merely summarizing earlier existing literature on
astronomy, Shilpa Sastra and temple architecture, yet his presentation of different theories
and models of design are among the earliest texts that have survived. The chapters of
the Brihat Samhita and verses of Varahamihira were quoted by the Persian traveler and
scholar Al Biruni.
Varahamihira is also credited with writing several
authoritative texts on astronomy and astrology. He
learned the Greek language, and praised the Greeks
(Yavanas) in his text for being "well trained in the
sciences". Some scholars consider him to be the
strong candidate as the one who understood and
introduced the zodiac signs, predictive calculations
for auspicious ceremonies and astrological
computations to the Indian subcontinent from the
Greek literature.

Works
Pancha-Siddhantika
Varahamihira's main work is the book Pañcasiddhāntikā (or Pancha-Siddhantika, "[Treatise]
on the Five [Astronomical] Canons") dated ca. 575 CE gives us information about older Indian
texts which are now lost. The work is a treatise on mathematical astronomy and it summarises
five earlier astronomical treatises, namely the Surya Siddhanta, Romaka Siddhanta, Paulisa
Siddhanta, Vasishtha Siddhanta and Paitamaha Siddhanta. It is a compendium of Vedanga
Jyotisha as well as Hellenistic astronomy (including Greek, Egyptian and Roman
elements). Varahamihira was the first one to mention that the ayanamsa, or the shifting of the
equinox is 50.32 seconds.
They [the Indians] have 5 Siddhāntas:

 Sūrya-Siddhānta, ie. the Siddhānta of the Sun, thought to be composed by Lāṭadeva, but
actually composed by Mayasura also known as Mamuni Mayan as stated in the text itself.
 Vasishtha-siddhānta, so called from one of the stars of the Great Bear, composed by
Vishnucandra,
 Paulisa-siddhānta, so called from Pulisa, the Greek, from the city of Saintra, which is
supposed to be Alexandria, composed by Pulisa.
 Romaka-siddhānta, so called from the Rūm, ie. the subjects of the Roman Empire,
composed by Śrīsheṇa.
 Paitahama-siddhānta.

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Brihat-Samhita

Another important contribution of Varahamihira is the encyclopedic Brihat-Samhita. Although

the book is mostly about divination, it also includes a wide range of subjects other than
divination. It covers wide ranging subjects of human interest, including astronomy, planetary
movements, eclipses, rainfall, clouds, architecture, growth of crops, manufacture of perfume,
matrimony, domestic relations, gems, pearls, and rituals. The volume expounds on gemstone
evaluation criterion found in the Garuda Purana, and elaborates on the sacred Nine Pearls
from the same text. It contains 106 chapters and is known as the "great compilation".
On Astrology
He was also an astrologer.
His son Prithuyasas also contributed to Hindu astrology; his book Hora Sara is a famous book
on horoscopy. Khana (also named Lilavati elsewhere), the medieval Bengali poet astrologer, is
believed to be the daughter-in-law of Varahamihira.

Influences
The Romaka Siddhanta ("Doctrine of the Romans") and the Paulisa Siddhanta were two works
of Western origin which influenced Varahamihira's thought, though this view is controversial
as there is much evidence to suggest that it was actually Vedic thought indigenous to India
which first influenced Western astrologers and subsequently came back to India
reformulated. Paulisa Siddhanta is often mistakenly thought to be a single work and attributed
to Paul of Alexandria (c. 378 CE). However, this notion has been rejected by other scholars in
the field, notably by David Pingree who stated that "...the identification of Paulus Alexandrinus
with the author of the Pauliśa Siddhānta is totally false". Number of his writings share
similarities with the earlier texts like Vedanga Jyotisha. A comment in the Brihat-Samhita by
Varahamihira says: "The Greeks, though impure., must be honored since they have shown
tremendous interest in our science....." ("mleccha hi yavanah tesu samyak shastram
kdamsthitam/ rsivat te 'p i pujyante kim punar daivavid dvijah" (Brihat-Samhita 2.15)).

Contributions
Trigonometry
Varahamihira improved the accuracy of the sine tables of Aryabhata .
Combinatorics
He was among the first mathematicians to discover a version of what is now known as
the Pascal's triangle. He used it to calculate the binomial coefficients. He also records the first
known 4×4 magic square.
Optics
Among Varahamihira's contribution to physics is his statement that reflection is caused by the
back-scattering of particles and refraction (the change of direction of a light ray as it moves
from one medium into another) by the ability of the particles to penetrate inner spaces of the
material, much like fluids that move through porous objects.
1. ^ "the Pañca-siddhāntikā ("Five Treatises"), a compendium of Greek, Egyptian, Roman and
Indian astronomy. Varāhamihira's knowledge of Western astronomy was thorough. In 5
sections, his monumental work progresses through native Indian astronomy and
culminates in 2 treatises on Western astronomy, showing calculations based on Greek and
Alexandrian reckoning and even giving complete Ptolemaic mathematical charts and
tables. Encyclopædia Britannica (2007) s.v.Varahamihira ^
2. E. C. Sachau, Alberuni's India (1910), vol. I, p. 153

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Brahmagupta
Brahmagupta (born c. 598 CE, died c. 668 CE) was an Indian mathematician and astronomer.
He is the author of two early works
on mathematics and astronomy:
the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta (BSS, "correctly
established doctrine of Brahma", dated 628), a
theoretical treatise, and
the Khaṇḍakhādyaka ("edible bite", dated 665), a
more practical text.
Brahmagupta was the first to give rules to compute
with zero. The texts composed by Brahmagupta were
in elliptic verse in Sanskrit, as was common practice
in Indian mathematics. As no proofs are given, it is
not known how Brahmagupta's results were derived.

Life and career

Brahmagupta was born in 598 CE according to his own statement. He lived
in Bhillamala (modern Bhinmal) during the reign of the Chavda dynasty ruler, Vyagrahamukha.
He was the son of Jishnugupta and was a Shaivite by religion. Even though most scholars
assume that Brahmagupta was born in Bhillamala, there is no conclusive evidence for it.
However, he lived and worked there for a good part of his life. Prithudaka Svamin, a later
commentator, called him Bhillamalacharya, the teacher from Bhillamala. Sociologist G. S.
Ghurye believed that he might have been from the Multan or Abu region.
Bhillamala, called pi-lo-mo-lo by Xuanzang, was the apparent capital of the Gurjaradesa, the
second largest kingdom of Western India, comprising southern Rajasthan and
northern Gujarat in modern-day India. It was also a centre of learning for mathematics and
astronomy. Brahmagupta became an astronomer of the Brahmapaksha school, one of the four
major schools of Indian astronomy during this period. He studied the five
traditional siddhanthas on Indian astronomy as well as the work of other astronomers
including Aryabhata I, Latadeva, Pradyumna, Varahamihira, Simha, Srisena, Vijayanandin and
Vishnuchandra.
In the year 628, at an age of 30, he composed the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta (the improved
treatise of Brahma) which is believed to be a revised version of the received siddhanta of the
Brahmapaksha school. Scholars state that he incorporated a great deal of originality to his
revision, adding a considerable amount of new material. The book consists of 24 chapters with
1008 verses in the ārya metre. A good deal of it is astronomy, but it also contains key chapters
on mathematics, including algebra, geometry, trigonometry and algorithmics, which are
believed to contain new insights due to Brahmagupta himself.
Later, Brahmagupta moved to Ujjain, which was also a major centre for astronomy. At the age
of 67, he composed his next well known work Khanda-khādyaka, a practical manual of Indian
astronomy in the karana category meant to be used by students.
Brahmagupta lived beyond 665 CE. He is believed to have died in Ujjain.

Controversy
Brahmagupta directed a great deal of criticism towards the work of rival astronomers, and
his Brahmasphutasiddhanta displays one of the earliest schisms among Indian
mathematicians. The division was primarily about the application of mathematics to the
physical world, rather than about the mathematics itself. In Brahmagupta's case, the
disagreements stemmed largely from the choice of astronomical parameters and theories.
Critiques of rival theories appear throughout the first ten astronomical chapters and the
eleventh chapter is entirely devoted to criticism of these theories, although no criticisms
appear in the twelfth and eighteenth chapters.

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Reception
The historian of science George Sarton called him "one of the greatest scientists of his race
and the greatest of his time." Brahmagupta's mathematical advances were carried on further
by Bhāskara II, a lineal descendant in Ujjain, who described Brahmagupta as the ganaka-
chakra-chudamani (the gem of the circle of mathematicians). Prithudaka Svaminwrote
commentaries on both of his works, rendering difficult verses into simpler language and
adding illustrations. Lalla and Bhattotpala in the 8th and 9th centuries wrote commentaries on
the Khanda-khadyaka. Further commentaries continued to be written into the 12th century.
A few decades after the death of Brahmagupta, Sindh came under the Arab Caliphate in 712
CE. Expeditions were sent into Gurjaradesa. The kingdom of Bhillamala seems to have been
annihilated but Ujjain repulsed the attacks. The court of Caliph Al-Mansur (754–775) received
an embassy from Sindh, including an astrologer called Kanaka, who brought (possibly
memorised) astronomical texts, including those of Brahmagupta. Brahmagupta's texts were
translated into Arabic by Muhammad al-Fazari, an astronomer in Al-Mansur's court under the
names Sindhind and Arakhand. An immediate outcome was the spread of the decimal number
system used in the texts. The mathematician Al-Khwarizmi (800–850 CE) wrote a text called al-
Jam wal-tafriq bi hisal-al-Hind (Addition and Subtraction in Indian Arithmetic), which was
translated into Latin in the 13th century as Algorithmi de numero indorum. Through these
texts, the decimal number system and Brahmagupta's algorithms for arithmetic have spread
throughout the world. Al-Khwarizmi also wrote his own version of Sindhind, drawing on Al-
Fazari's version and incorporating Ptolemaic elements. Indian astronomic material circulated
widely for centuries, even passing into medieval Latin texts.

Mathematics
Algebra
Brahmagupta gave the solution of the general linear equation in chapter eighteen
of Brahmasphutasiddhanta,
The difference between rupas, when inverted and divided by the difference of the unknowns, is
the unknown in the equation. The rupas are [subtracted on the side] below that from which the
square and the unknown are to be subtracted.
which is a solution for the equation bx + c = dx + e equivalent to x = e − c/b − d,
where rupas refers to the constants c and e. He further gave two equivalent solutions to the
general quadratic equation
18.44. Diminish by the middle [number] the square-root of the rupas multiplied by four times
the square and increased by the square of the middle [number]; divide the remainder by twice
the square. [The result is] the middle [number].
18.45. Whatever is the square-root of the rupas multiplied by the square [and] increased by the
square of half the unknown, diminish that by half the unknown [and] divide [the remainder] by
its square. [The result is] the unknown.
which are, respectively, solutions for the equation ax2 + bx = c equivalent to,

and .
He went on to solve systems of simultaneous indeterminate equations stating that the desired
variable must first be isolated, and then the equation must be divided by the desired
variable's coefficient. In particular, he recommended using "the pulverizer" to solve equations
with multiple unknowns.
18.51. Subtract the colors different from the first color. [The remainder] divided by the first
[color's coefficient] is the measure of the first. [Terms] two by two [are] considered [when
reduced to] similar divisors, [and so on] repeatedly. If there are many [colors], the pulverizer
[is to be used].
Like the algebra of Diophantus, the algebra of Brahmagupta was syncopated. Addition was
indicated by placing the numbers side by side, subtraction by placing a dot over the

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subtrahend, and division by placing the divisor below the dividend, similar to our notation but
without the bar. Multiplication, evolution, and unknown quantities were represented by
abbreviations of appropriate terms. The extent of Greek influence on this syncopation, if any,
is not known and it is possible that both Greek and Indian syncopation may be derived from a
common Babylonian source.
Arithmetic
The four fundamental operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) were
known to many cultures before Brahmagupta. This current system is based on the Hindu
Arabic number system and first appeared in Brahmasphutasiddhanta. Brahmagupta describes
the multiplication as thus “The multiplicand is repeated like a string for cattle, as often as
there are integrant portions in the multiplier and is repeatedly multiplied by them and the
products are added together. It is multiplication. Or the multiplicand is repeated as many times
as there are component parts in the multiplier”. [16][page needed] Indian arithmetic was
known in Medieval Europe as "Modus Indoram" meaning method of the Indians. In
Brahmasphutasiddhanta, multiplication was named Gomutrika. In the beginning of chapter
twelve of his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, entitled Calculation, Brahmagupta details operations on
fractions. The reader is expected to know the basic arithmetic operations as far as taking the
square root, although he explains how to find the cube and cube-root of an integer and later
gives rules facilitating the computation of squares and square roots. He then gives rules for
dealing with five types of combinations of
fractions: a/c + b/c; a/c × b/d; a/1 + b/d; a/c + b/d × a/c = a(d + b)/cd;
and a/c − b/d × a/c = a(d − b)/cd.
 Series
Brahmagupta then goes on to give the sum of the squares and cubes of the first n integers.
12.20. The sum of the squares is that [sum] multiplied by twice the [number of] step[s]
increased by one [and] divided by three. The sum of the cubes is the square of that [sum] Piles
of these with identical balls [can also be computed].
Here Brahmagupta found the result in terms of the sum of the first n integers, rather than in
terms of n as is the modern practice.
He gives the sum of the squares of the first n natural numbers as n(n + 1)(2n + 1)/6 and the
sum of the cubes of the first n natural numbers as (n(n + 1)/2)2.
 Zero
Brahmagupta's Brahmasphuṭasiddhanta is the first book that provides rules for arithmetic
manipulations that apply to zero and to negative numbers. The Brahmasphutasiddhantais the
earliest known text to treat zero as a number in its own right, rather than as simply a
placeholder digit in representing another number as was done by the Babylonians or as a
symbol for a lack of quantity as was done by Ptolemy and the Romans. In chapter eighteen of
his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, Brahmagupta describes operations on negative numbers. He first
describes addition and subtraction,
18.30. [The sum] of two positives is positives, of two negatives negative; of a positive and a
negative [the sum] is their difference; if they are equal it is zero. The sum of a negative and
zero is negative, [that] of a positive and zero positive, [and that] of two zeros zero.
[...]
18.32. A negative minus zero is negative, a positive [minus zero] positive; zero [minus zero] is
zero. When a positive is to be subtracted from a negative or a negative from a positive, then it
is to be added.
He goes on to describe multiplication,
18.33. The product of a negative and a positive is negative, of two negatives positive, and of
positives positive; the product of zero and a negative, of zero and a positive, or of two zeros is
zero.
But his description of division by zero differs from our modern understanding:

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18.34. A positive divided by a positive or a negative divided by a negative is positive; a zero
divided by a zero is zero; a positive divided by a negative is negative; a negative divided by a
positive is [also] negative.
18.35. A negative or a positive divided by zero has that [zero] as its divisor, or zero divided by
a negative or a positive [has that negative or positive as its divisor]. The square of a
negativeor of a positive is positive; [the square] of zero is zero. That of which [the square] is
the square is [its] square-root.
Here Brahmagupta states that 0/0 = 0 and as for the question of a/0 where a ≠ 0 he did not
commit himself. His rules for arithmetic on negative numbers and zero are quite close to the
modern understanding, except that in modern mathematics division by zero is left undefined.
Diophantine analysis
 Pythagorean triples
In chapter twelve of his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, Brahmagupta provides a formula useful for
generating Pythagorean triples:
12.39. The height of a mountain multiplied by a given multiplier is the distance to a city; it is
not erased. When it is divided by the multiplier increased by two it is the leap of one of the two
who make the same journey.
Or, in other words, if d = mx/x + 2, then a traveller who "leaps" vertically upwards a
distance d from the top of a mountain of height m, and then travels in a straight line to a city at
a horizontal distance mx from the base of the mountain, travels the same distance as one who
descends vertically down the mountain and then travels along the horizontal to the city. Stated
geometrically, this says that if a right-angled triangle has a base of length a = mx and altitude
of length b = m + d, then the length, c, of its hypotenuse is given by c = m(1 + x) − d. And,
indeed, elementary algebraic manipulation shows that a2 + b2 = c2 whenever d has the value
stated. Also, if m and x are rational, so are d, a, b and c. A Pythagorean triple can therefore be
obtained from a, b and c by multiplying each of them by the least common multiple of
their denominators.
 Pell's equation
Brahmagupta went on to give a recurrence relation for generating solutions to certain
instances of Diophantine equations of the second degree such as Nx2 + 1 = y2 (called Pell's
equation) by using the Euclidean algorithm. The Euclidean algorithm was known to him as the
"pulverizer" since it breaks numbers down into ever smaller pieces.
The nature of squares:
18.64. [Put down] twice the square-root of a given square by a multiplier and increased or
diminished by an arbitrary [number]. The product of the first [pair], multiplied by the multiplier,
with the product of the last [pair], is the last computed.
18.65. The sum of the thunderbolt products is the first. The additive is equal to the product of
the additives. The two square-roots, divided by the additive or the subtractive, are the
additive rupas.
The key to his solution was the identity,

which is a generalisation of an identity that was discovered by Diophantus,

Using his identity and the fact that if (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) are solutions to the
equations x2 − Ny2 = k1 and x2 − Ny2 = k2, respectively, then (x1x2 + Ny1y2, x1y2 + x2y1) is a
solution to x2 − Ny2 = k1k2, he was able to find integral solutions to Pell's equation through a
series of equations of the form x2 − Ny2 = ki. Brahmagupta was not able to apply his solution
uniformly for all possible values of N, rather he was only able to show that if x2 − Ny2 = k has
an integer solution for k = ±1, ±2, or ±4, then x2 − Ny2 = 1 has a solution. The solution of the
general Pell's equation would have to wait for Bhaskara II in c. 1150 CE.

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Geometry
 Brahmagupta's formula
Brahmagupta's most famous result in geometry is his formula for cyclic quadrilaterals. Given
the lengths of the sides of any cyclic quadrilateral, Brahmagupta gave an approximate and an
exact formula for the figure's area,
12.21. The approximate area is the product of the halves of the sums of the sides and opposite
sides of a triangle and a quadrilateral. The accurate [area] is the square root from the product
of the halves of the sums of the sides diminished by [each] side of the quadrilateral.
So given the lengths p, q, r and s of a cyclic quadrilateral, the approximate area
is p + r/2 · q + s/2 while, letting t = p + q + r + s/2, the exact area is
√(t − p)(t − q)(t − r)(t − s).
Although Brahmagupta does not explicitly state that these quadrilaterals are cyclic, it is
apparent from his rules that this is the case. Heron's formula is a special case of this formula
and it can be derived by setting one of the sides equal to zero.
 Triangles
Brahmagupta dedicated a substantial portion of his work to geometry. One theorem gives the
lengths of the two segments a triangle's base is divided into by its altitude:
12.22. The base decreased and increased by the difference between the squares of the sides
divided by the base; when divided by two they are the true segments. The perpendicular
[altitude] is the square-root from the square of a side diminished by the square of its segment.
Thus the lengths of the two segments are 1/2(b ± c2 − a2/b).
He further gives a theorem on rational triangles. A triangle with rational sides a, b, c and
rational area is of the form:

for some rational numbers u, v, and w.

 Brahmagupta's theorem
Brahmagupta continues,
12.23. The square-root of the sum of the two products of the sides and opposite sides of a
non-unequal quadrilateral is the diagonal. The square of the diagonal is diminished by the
square of half the sum of the base and the top; the square-root is the perpendicular [altitudes].
So, in a "non-unequal" cyclic quadrilateral (that is, an isosceles trapezoid), the length of each
diagonal is √pr + qs.
He continues to give formulas for the lengths and areas of geometric figures, such as the
circumradius of an isosceles trapezoid and a scalene quadrilateral, and the lengths of
diagonals in a scalene cyclic quadrilateral. This leads up to Brahmagupta's famous theorem,
12.30-31. Imaging two triangles within [a cyclic quadrilateral] with unequal sides, the two
diagonals are the two bases. Their two segments are separately the upper and lower segments
[formed] at the intersection of the diagonals. The two [lower segments] of the two diagonals
are two sides in a triangle; the base [of the quadrilateral is the base of the triangle]. Its
perpendicular is the lower portion of the [central] perpendicular; the upper portion of the
[central] perpendicular is half of the sum of the [sides] perpendiculars diminished by the lower
[portion of the central perpendicular].
 Pi
In verse 40, he gives values of π,

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12.40. The diameter and the square of the radius [each] multiplied by 3 are [respectively] the
practical circumference and the area [of a circle]. The accurate [values] are the square-roots
from the squares of those two multiplied by ten.
So Brahmagupta uses 3 as a "practical" value of π, and as an "accurate"
value of π. The error in this "accurate" value is less than 1%.
 Measurements and constructions
In some of the verses before verse 40, Brahmagupta gives constructions of various figures
with arbitrary sides. He essentially manipulated right triangles to produce isosceles triangles,
scalene triangles, rectangles, isosceles trapezoids, isosceles trapezoids with three equal
sides, and a scalene cyclic quadrilateral.
After giving the value of pi, he deals with the geometry of plane figures and solids, such as
finding volumes and surface areas (or empty spaces dug out of solids). He finds the volume of
rectangular prisms, pyramids, and the frustum of a square pyramid. He further finds the
average depth of a series of pits. For the volume of a frustum of a pyramid, he gives the
"pragmatic" value as the depth times the square of the mean of the edges of the top and
bottom faces, and he gives the "superficial" volume as the depth times their mean area.
Trigonometry
 Sine table
In Chapter 2 of his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, entitled Planetary True Longitudes, Brahmagupta
presents a sine table:
2.2-5. The sines: The Progenitors, twins; Ursa Major, twins, the Vedas; the gods, fires, six;
flavors, dice, the gods; the moon, five, the sky, the moon; the moon, arrows, suns [...]
Here Brahmagupta uses names of objects to represent the digits of place-value numerals, as
was common with numerical data in Sanskrit treatises. Progenitors represents the 14
Progenitors ("Manu") in Indian cosmology or 14, "twins" means 2, "Ursa Major" represents the
seven stars of Ursa Major or 7, "Vedas" refers to the 4 Vedas or 4, dice represents the number
of sides of the tradition die or 6, and so on. This information can be translated into the list of
sines, 214, 427, 638, 846, 1051, 1251, 1446, 1635, 1817, 1991, 2156, 2312, 1459, 2594, 2719, 2832,
2933, 3021, 3096, 3159, 3207, 3242, 3263, and 3270, with the radius being 3270.
 Interpolation formula
In 665 Brahmagupta devised and used a special case of the Newton–Stirling interpolation
formula of the second-order to interpolate new values of the sine function from other values
already tabulated. The formula gives an estimate for the value of a function f at a
value a + xh of its argument (with h > 0 and −1 ≤ x ≤ 1) when its value is already known
at a − h, a and a + h.
The formula for the estimate is:

where Δ is the first-order forward-difference operator, i.e.

Astronomy
Some of the important contributions made by Brahmagupta in astronomy are his methods for
calculating the position of heavenly bodies over time (ephemerides), their rising and
setting, conjunctions, and the calculation of solar and lunar eclipses.
In chapter seven of his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, entitled Lunar Crescent, Brahmagupta rebuts
the idea that the Moon is farther from the Earth than the Sun, an idea which had been

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suggested by Vedic scripture. He does this by explaining the illumination of the Moon by the
Sun.
1. If the moon were above the sun, how would the power of waxing and waning, etc., be
produced from calculation of the longitude of the moon? The near half would always be
bright.
2. In the same way that the half seen by the sun of a pot standing in sunlight is bright, and
the unseen half dark, so is [the illumination] of the moon [if it is] beneath the sun.
3. The brightness is increased in the direction of the sun. At the end of a bright [i.e. waxing]
half-month, the near half is bright and the far half dark. Hence, the elevation of the horns
[of the crescent can be derived] from calculation. [...]
He explains that since the Moon is closer to the Earth than the Sun, the degree of the
illuminated part of the Moon depends on the relative positions of the Sun and the Moon, and
this can be computed from the size of the angle between the two bodies.
Further work exploring the longitudes of the planets, diurnal rotation, lunar and solar eclipses,
risings and settings, the moon's crescent and conjunctions of the planets, are discussed in
his treatise Khandakhadyaka.

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Sridhara
Sridharacharya (Bengali: শশশশশশ শশশশশশ; c. 750 CE – c. 930 CE) was an Indian mathematician,
Sanskrit pandit and philosopher. He was born in Bhurishresti (Bhurisristi or Bhurshut) village
in South Radha (at present day Hughli) in the 8th
Century AD. His father's name was Baladev Acharya
and his mother's name was Acchoka bai. His father
was a Sanskrit pandit and philosopher.

Notable Work

 He gave an exposition on the zero. He wrote, "If

zero is added to any number, the sum is the
same number; if zero is subtracted from any
number, the number remains unchanged; if zero
is multiplied by any number, the product is
zero".
 In the case of dividing a fraction he has found
out the method of multiplying the fraction by the
reciprocal of the divisor.
 He wrote on the practical applications of algebra
 He separated algebra from arithmetic
 He was one of the first to give a formula for
solving quadratic equations.

Sridharacharya Method of computing Root of a Quadratic Equation

Multiply both sides by 4a,

Subtract 4ac from both sides,

Add to both sides,

Since

Complete the square on the left side,

Take square roots,

and, divide by 2a,

S-1F -By Pratham P. Chopra