Bhaskaracharya

Bhaskaracharya otherwise known as Bhaskara is probably the most well known mathematician of ancient Indian today. Bhaskara was born in 1114 A.D. according to a statement he recorded in one of his own works. He was from Bijjada Bida near the Sahyadri mountains. Bijjada Bida is thought to be present day Bijapur in Mysore state. Bhaskara wrote his famous Siddhanta Siroman in the year 1150 A.D. It is divided into four parts; Lilavati (arithmetic), Bijaganita (algebra), Goladhyaya (celestial globe), and Grahaganita (mathematics of the planets). Much of Bhaskara's work in the Lilavati and Bijaganita was derived from earlier mathematicians; hence it is not surprising that Bhaskara is best in dealing with indeterminate analysis. In connection with the Pell equation, x^2=1+61y^2, nearly solved by Brahmagupta, Bhaskara gave a method (Chakravala process) for solving the equation. Bhaskara was somewhat of a poet as were many Indian mathematicians at this time. O girl! out of a group of swans, 7/2 times the square root of the number are playing on the shore of a tank. The two remaining ones are playing with amorous fight, in the water. What is the total number of swans? Teaching and learning mathematics was in Bhaskara's blood. He learnt mathematics from his father, a mathematician, and he

himself passed his knowledge to his son Loksamudra. To return to the timeline click here: timeline. A very great mathematician and an astronomer of the Kaliyuga's 43rd century ( i.e. 12th century A.D ) Bhaskaracharya was the head of the observatory at Ujjain. There are two famous works of his on Mathematical Astronomy - Siddhanta-Siromani and KaranaKutuhala. Besides his work on Algebra, Lilavati Bija Ganita too is famous. The law of Gravitation, in clear tems, had been propounded by Bhaskaracharya 500 years before it was rediscovered by Newton. Centuries before him there had been another mathematician Bhaskaracharya also in Bharat ( India ). The subjects of his six works include arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, calculus, geometry, astronomy. There is a seventh book attributed to him which is thought to be a forgery. Bhaskaracharya discovered the concept of differentials, and contributed a greater understanding of number systems and advanced methods of equation solving. He was able to accurately calculate the sidreal year, or the time it takes for the earth to orbit the sun. There is but a scant difference in his figure of 365.2588 days and the modern figure of 365.2596 days. There is an interesting legend about his daughter Lilavati, for whom Bhaskaracharya named his book on arithmetic. According to a Persian translation, when Lilavati became of marriageable age, Bhaskaracharya cast her horoscope to determine the most

propitious day and hour for her wedding to take place. The signs told him that if she was not married at a particular place at a particular time, the bridegroom would die shortly after the wedding. To prevent this, Bhaskaracharya made a small hole in the bottom of a cup which he then put into a jug of water. He had calculated that the cup would sink to the bottom at the appropriate hour for the wedding. Though he warned his daughter not to disturb this arrangement, Lilavati's curiosity led her to lean over the device, and in doing so, a pearl fell off her dress and blocked the hole in the cup. The cup never sank and poor Lilavati was never able to be married. Her father wrote her a mathematics manual, which was supposed to console her and to keep her occupied as she studied its contents. Some scholars have disputed this tale as mere fantasy, citing no evidence of Bhaskaracharya ever having a daughter, and some even think that Lilavati may have been his wife. After I wrote this, I was flipping through an old Archaeology Odyssey magazine and happened on an article about Egyptian water clocks from the 16th century BCE. The Egyptians used a high sided bowl with a small hole near the bottom to mark the hours. There were small indentations inside and it took about an hour for the water level to sink to each level. I was immediately struck by the similarity of this device to that of Bhaskaracharya's legend