History of Hindu Mathematics: A Source Book v1.c8.s1.21

v1.c8.s1.21

**The Fundamental Operations.** The eight fundamental operations of Hindu *gaṇita* are: (1) addition, (2) subtraction, (3) multiplication, (4) division, (5) square, (6) square-root, (7) cube and (8) cube-root. Most of these elementary processes have not been mentioned in the Siddhânta works. Âryabhaṭa I gives the rules for finding the square- and cube-roots only, whilst Brahmagupta gives the cube-root rule only. In the works on arithmetic (*pâṭîgaṇita*), the methods of addition and subtraction have not been mentioned at all or mentioned very briefly. Names of several methods of multiplication have been mentioned, but the methods themselves have been either very briefly described or not described at all. The modern method of division is briefly described in all the works and so are the methods of squaring, square-root, cubing and cube-root.