The Science of the Shulba: A Study in Early Hindu Geometry c7.18

c7.18

Of the known commentaries of the *Āpastamba Sulba* the earliest one is, I have good reasons to believe, that of Kapardisvāmī. This writer is known to have commented also on *Āpastamba-Śrauta-sūtra*, *Āpastamba-sūtra-paribhāṣā*, *Darśapaurṇamāsa-sūtra*, *Bhāradvāja Gṛhya-sūtra*, etc. He is quoted by Śūlapāṇi, Hemādri, Nīlakaṇṭha and others. Now Śūlapāṇi lived near about 1150 A.D. He was the teacher of the famous Ṣaḍguruśiṣya (1143-1193 A.D.), the author of the *Vedārthadīpikā*. Hemādri was the minister of King Mahādeva (1260-71) of Devagiri and of his nephew and successor Rāmachandra (1271-1309). So Kapardisvāmī lived before the twelfth century of the Christian era. He has generalised a method taught in the *Sulbas* for finding the rational right-angled triangles having a given leg. He says :