Mathematics in Ancient and Medieval India c4.s3.t2.1

c4.s3.t2.1

Āryabhaṭa I perhaps completed his education at the school of Kusumpura near modern Patna¹. His *Āryabhaṭīya*² or *Āryasiddhānta* (*laghu*) which is complete in four chapters, namely, *Daśagītikā* (the ten Gīti stanzas), *Gaṇitapāda* (Mathematics), *Kālakriyā* (reckoning of time), and *Gola* (sphere), deals with arithmetic and astronomy. The work was written in 499 A.D. when he was 23 years old³. Thirtyfour verses of the *Āryasiddhānta* on astronomical instruments have recently been traced by K.S. Shukla in a commentery of the *Sūryasiddhānta* by Rāmkṛṣṇa Ārādhya (1472 A.D.). Since these passages and Āryabhaṭa's midnight astromony do not occur in the *Āryasiddhānta* (*laghu*) of Āryabhaṭa, it is strongly presumed that he wrote another bigger work under the title, *Āryasiddhānta* (*mahā*). Though this work is not available at present, the glimpses of his midnight astronomy is still available in Bhāskara's *Mahābhāskarīya*, *Laghubhāskarīya* and in others. Some scholars believe that Āryabhaṭa I's works were based on the old *Sūryasiddhānta* for he was a worshipper of Sun, the promulgator of original *Sūryasiddhānta* (*vide* Introductory verse, Kern's edition )