Mathematics in Ancient and Medieval India c4.s3.t7.5

c4.s3.t7.5

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).