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Mathematics in Ancient and Medieval India c4.s3.t7: Govindasvāmin (c. 800-850 A.D.)

Mathematics in Ancient and Medieval India c4.s3.t7

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Govindasvāmin (c. 800-850 A.D.)

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Govindasvāmin who wrote a *bhāṣya* on the *Mahābhāskarīya*² of Bhāskara I seems to have flourished in Kerala in the first half of the ninth century A.D. Nīlakaṇṭha refers to the tradition that Govindasvāmin was the teacher of Śaṅkaranārāyaṇa who flourished at Mahodayapura. His *Govindakṛti* which was written as a sequel to the *Āryabhaṭīya* of Āryabhaṭa I appears to be lost. It was also similar to the *Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta* of Brahmagupta and contained chapters on arithmetic and mensuration. Quotations from this work are found to appear in the commentaries of the astronomers, Śaṅkaranārāyaṇa (869 A.D.) and Udayadivākara (1073 A.D.) on the *Laghubhāskarīya*³ of Bhāskara I and in the *Āryabhaṭīyabhāṣya* of Nīlakaṇṭha.

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² Ed. by T. S. Kuppanna Śāstri with the *Bhāṣya* of Govindasvāmin and *Siddhāntadīpikā* of Parameśvara, Madras, 1957; vide. our *Bibliography*, p. 78.

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³ Vide the *Laghubhāskarīya* with the commentary *Vivaraṇa* of Śaṅkaranārāyaṇa, Trivandrum Sanskrit Series no. 162, Trivandrum, 1949; For Mss. of Udayadivākara vide *Bibliography*, p. 230.

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*SKANDASENA* (c. 9th century beginning)

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Pṛthūdakasvāmi (860 A.D.) has referred to this mathematician three times in his commentary on ch. 12 of the *Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta* of Brahmagupta (v.2, 9 and 55). This reference to Skandasena is of great historical importance, as they show that the methods of multiplication known as *kapāṭasandhi*, *tatstha* and *khaṇḍa* as well as the mixed fractions called *bhāgamātā* occurred also in early works on Hindu *pāṭīgaṇita*. We also understand that the geometrical interpretation of an arithmetic series with the help of a figure which has been explained in detail in Śrīdhara's *Pāṭīgaṇita* (vide Rules 79-89) is due to Skandasena or some earlier mathematician and not to Śrīdhara. The works of Skandasena are now lost and nothing more can be said definitely (vide Shukla's Introduction of the *Pāṭīgaṇita* of *Śrīdhara*, Lucknow University, 1959).

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