The Science of the Shulba: A Study in Early Hindu Geometry c7.37

c7.37

Karavindasvāmī, indeed, wrote a commentary on the whole of the *Śrauta-sūtra* of Āpastamba. He is known to be the author of a few other works also. His time is still very uncertain. He is found to have quoted, without any mention of name, certain passages from the *Āryabhaṭīya* (499 A.D.) of Āryabhaṭa I (born 476).¹ So he undoubtedly flourished after the fifth century of the Christian era. Though we are not in a position to fix or even suggest any closer upper limit to his time, this limit seems to us to be too earlier. There is, however, one passage in his commentary on the *Āpastamba Śulba* which might lead one to take him as belonging to a very early age. He has referred to a certain treatise on mathematics which gives an incorrect formula for the calculation of the area of a segment of a circle :¹