Indian Mathematics c6.15

c6.15

He was renowned as an astronomer and as such tried to introduce sounder views of that science but was bitterly opposed by the orthodox. The mathematical work attributed to him consists of thirty-three couplets into which is condensed a good deal of matter. Starting with the orders of numerals he proceeds to evolution and involution, and areas and volumes. Next comes a semi-astronomical section in which he deals with the circle, shadow problems, etc.; then a set of propositions on progressions followed by some simple algebraic identities. The remaining rules may be termed practical applications with the exception of the very last which relates to indeterminate equations of the first degree. Neither demonstrations nor examples are given, the whole text consisting of sixty-six lines of bare rules so condensed that it is often difficult to interpret their meaning. As a mathematical treatise it is of interest chiefly because it is some record of the state of knowledge at a critical period in the intellectual history of the civilised world; because, as far as we know, it is the earliest Hindu work on pure mathematics; and because it forms a sort of introduction to the school of Indian mathematicians that flourished in succeeding centuries.