Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c5.s1.30

c5.s1.30

Mahāvīra,²⁴ the most famous of the Jaina mathematicians, wrote his Gaṇitasārasaṅgraha²⁵ during the reign of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa Amoghavarṣa, who ruled parts of Karṇāṭaka and Mahārāṣṭra between ca. 814/15 and ca. 880. In this work he has divided the traditional contents of gaṇitaśāstra into an opening saṃjñādhikāra (paribhāṣā, mathematics of zero, and addition and subtraction) and eight vyavahāras. The parikarma is concerned with multiplication, division, squares, square-roots, cube-roots, and series; the kalāsavarṇa and prakīrṇaka with fractions; the trairāśika with the rules of three, five, seven, and nine; the miśraka with mixtures, the pulverizer, and sums of series; the kṣetragaṇita with plane geometry;²⁶ the khāta with solid geometry; and the chāyā with shadow problems. The GSS was commented on in Kannaḍa by Daivajñavallabha²⁷ (Bālabodha) and in Sanskrit by Varadarāja. Furthermore, it was translated into Telugu by Pāvulūri Mallana²⁸ in the eleventh century and into Rājasthānī by Amīcandra²⁹ in about 1850.