Brahmagupta photo

(598–665?). One of the most accomplished of the ancient Indian astronomers was Brahmagupta. He also had a profound and direct influence on Islamic and Byzantine astronomy. Brahmagupta was born in 598 an orthodox Hindu, and his religious views, particularly the Hindu yuga system of measuring the ages of humankind, influenced his work. He severely criticized Jain Brahmagupta’s fame rests mostly on his Brahma-sphuta-siddhanta (628; “Correctly Established Doctrine of Brahma”), an astronomical work that he probably wrote while living in Bhillamala, then the capital of the Khandakhadyaka (665; “A Piece Eatable”), an In addition to expounding on traditional Indian astronomy in his books, Brahmagupta devoted several chapters of Brahma-sphuta-siddhanta to pati-ganita (“mathematics of procedures,” or algorithms) and bija-ganita (“mathematics of seeds,” or equations), which roughly correspond to arithmetic (including mensuration) and algebra, respectively. Chapter 12 is simply named “Mathematics,” probably because the “basic operations,” such as arithmetic operations and proportions, and the “practical mathematics,” such as mixture and series, treated there occupied the major part of the mathematics of Brahmagupta’s milieu. He stressed the importance of these topics as a qualification for a mathematician, or calculator ( ganaka). Chapter 18, “Pulverizer,” is named after the first topic of the chapter, probably because no particular name for this area (algebra) existed yet. Among his ...

About 1500 years ago, in 628 A.D., a book called the Brahmasphutasiddhanta was published in India. Over the next few hundred years, it would cause a revolution within the world of mathematics that slowly spread across the entire world. Sixth and seventh century India was a hotbed for scientific and mathematical innovation, and the basic numerical system that we use today developed in this time and place. However, even in that exciting and progressive environment, this book stood out among the rest. It was written by a brilliant mathematician and astronomer named Brahmagupta, and in it, he developed most of the rules that we still use to work with the numeral zero. The remarkable life of Brahmagupta began in 598 AD in northwestern India. He spent most of his life living near the modern Indian city of Bhinmal, which was then known as Bhillamala. It is sometimes referred to as Bhillamalacharya, which means the teacher from Bhillamala. He began to study astronomy when he was a young man. At this time, Indian astronomy was quite advanced compared to the work being done in the rest of the world. When he was only 30 years old, he published his most famous book, the Brahmasphutasiddhanta. In this book, he mainly focused on issues related to astronomy. He asserted that the Earth was round and not flat, as many people still believed, and even calculated that the circumference of the Earth was approximately 36,000 km. Today, we know that the Earth's circumference is actually about 40...

By Lillie Therieau While not much is known about the life of ancient Indian mathematician Brahamagupta, his contributions to math, astronomy, and science have shaped the modern world. He was one of the first mathematicians to explore the properties of the number zero, and the first to record his ideas about it in writing. He’s also credited with important astronomical discoveries like the fact that the Moon is closer to Earth than the Sun. Remarkably, he set his complex math and science ideas out in a book composed entirely in metered poetic verse! Learning about this extraordinary thinker, you’ll be shocked at the number of discoveries he made that inform our everyday lives. You’ll also get an underrepresented peek into the world of ancient Indian mathematicians and astronomers, whose prolific work put the ancient Greeks to shame. The Mysterious Life of Brahmagupta Unfortunately, not much is known about the details of Brahmagupta’s personal life. The only surviving records which describe him focus mainly on his mathematical and scientific contributions. However, we do know that Brahmagupta was born in 598 CE in Bhillamala, in the Gurjaradesa region of India. He was a Hindu, and a Shaivite specifically. Shaivism is still one of the largest denominations of Hinduism and adherents worship the god Shiva as the supreme ruler. Bhillamala was the capital of the Gurjaradesa region and one of the biggest cities in India at the time. It was a beacon for academics throughout the reg...

• • Politics • Crime • All India • • South Asia • Asia • Middle East • Africa • Europe • Americas • Oceania • • Delhi • Kolkata • Mumbai • In Other Cities • • Economy • Market • Companies • Autos • In Other News • • Edit • Oped • Columnists • Interview of the Week • Reporter's Diary • The Age Debate • Here and Now • • Cricket • Tennis • Football • In Other sports • • Mobiles & Tabs • Gadgets • In Other news • Reviews • • Bollywood • Hollywood • Movie Reviews • TV • Music • In Other News • • • Health • Fashion • Food • Travel • Art • Relationship • More Features • • • • • • • • • • • • • Sir Isaac Newton (1643 - 1727), move over. Your days as the pre-eminent holder of the exalted title ‘Discoverer of the Law of Gravity’ is in grave peril. Enter stage left, Brahmagupta who saw the apple fall from a tree in his garden over 1,000 years prior to Newton's rip-off discovery and went, ‘Eureka, the apple fell from the tree in a straight, perpendicular line, drawn by the earth's core. I have discovered Gravity’. Now the exclamatory ‘Eureka’, of course, has been credited to Archimedes (287 BC - 212 BC), his bathtub, and the subsequent displacement of water, known as the Archimedes principle of buoyancy. In his uncontrollable excitement, Archimedes is said to have jumped out of his bathtub, running naked all over the house yelling the magic words, ‘Eureka, Eureka’ . Yes, he said it twice over, and who can blame him. There are those who aver that he only exclaimed those words when he a...

(598–665?). One of the most accomplished of the ancient Indian astronomers was Brahmagupta. He also had a profound and direct influence on Islamic and Byzantine astronomy. Brahmagupta was born in 598 an orthodox Hindu, and his religious views, particularly the Hindu yuga system of measuring the ages of humankind, influenced his work. He severely criticized Jain Brahmagupta’s fame rests mostly on his Brahma-sphuta-siddhanta (628; “Correctly Established Doctrine of Brahma”), an astronomical work that he probably wrote while living in Bhillamala, then the capital of the Khandakhadyaka (665; “A Piece Eatable”), an In addition to expounding on traditional Indian astronomy in his books, Brahmagupta devoted several chapters of Brahma-sphuta-siddhanta to pati-ganita (“mathematics of procedures,” or algorithms) and bija-ganita (“mathematics of seeds,” or equations), which roughly correspond to arithmetic (including mensuration) and algebra, respectively. Chapter 12 is simply named “Mathematics,” probably because the “basic operations,” such as arithmetic operations and proportions, and the “practical mathematics,” such as mixture and series, treated there occupied the major part of the mathematics of Brahmagupta’s milieu. He stressed the importance of these topics as a qualification for a mathematician, or calculator ( ganaka). Chapter 18, “Pulverizer,” is named after the first topic of the chapter, probably because no particular name for this area (algebra) existed yet. Among his ...

By Lillie Therieau While not much is known about the life of ancient Indian mathematician Brahamagupta, his contributions to math, astronomy, and science have shaped the modern world. He was one of the first mathematicians to explore the properties of the number zero, and the first to record his ideas about it in writing. He’s also credited with important astronomical discoveries like the fact that the Moon is closer to Earth than the Sun. Remarkably, he set his complex math and science ideas out in a book composed entirely in metered poetic verse! Learning about this extraordinary thinker, you’ll be shocked at the number of discoveries he made that inform our everyday lives. You’ll also get an underrepresented peek into the world of ancient Indian mathematicians and astronomers, whose prolific work put the ancient Greeks to shame. The Mysterious Life of Brahmagupta Unfortunately, not much is known about the details of Brahmagupta’s personal life. The only surviving records which describe him focus mainly on his mathematical and scientific contributions. However, we do know that Brahmagupta was born in 598 CE in Bhillamala, in the Gurjaradesa region of India. He was a Hindu, and a Shaivite specifically. Shaivism is still one of the largest denominations of Hinduism and adherents worship the god Shiva as the supreme ruler. Bhillamala was the capital of the Gurjaradesa region and one of the biggest cities in India at the time. It was a beacon for academics throughout the reg...

About 1500 years ago, in 628 A.D., a book called the Brahmasphutasiddhanta was published in India. Over the next few hundred years, it would cause a revolution within the world of mathematics that slowly spread across the entire world. Sixth and seventh century India was a hotbed for scientific and mathematical innovation, and the basic numerical system that we use today developed in this time and place. However, even in that exciting and progressive environment, this book stood out among the rest. It was written by a brilliant mathematician and astronomer named Brahmagupta, and in it, he developed most of the rules that we still use to work with the numeral zero. The remarkable life of Brahmagupta began in 598 AD in northwestern India. He spent most of his life living near the modern Indian city of Bhinmal, which was then known as Bhillamala. It is sometimes referred to as Bhillamalacharya, which means the teacher from Bhillamala. He began to study astronomy when he was a young man. At this time, Indian astronomy was quite advanced compared to the work being done in the rest of the world. When he was only 30 years old, he published his most famous book, the Brahmasphutasiddhanta. In this book, he mainly focused on issues related to astronomy. He asserted that the Earth was round and not flat, as many people still believed, and even calculated that the circumference of the Earth was approximately 36,000 km. Today, we know that the Earth's circumference is actually about 40...

• • Politics • Crime • All India • • South Asia • Asia • Middle East • Africa • Europe • Americas • Oceania • • Delhi • Kolkata • Mumbai • In Other Cities • • Economy • Market • Companies • Autos • In Other News • • Edit • Oped • Columnists • Interview of the Week • Reporter's Diary • The Age Debate • Here and Now • • Cricket • Tennis • Football • In Other sports • • Mobiles & Tabs • Gadgets • In Other news • Reviews • • Bollywood • Hollywood • Movie Reviews • TV • Music • In Other News • • • Health • Fashion • Food • Travel • Art • Relationship • More Features • • • • • • • • • • • • • Sir Isaac Newton (1643 - 1727), move over. Your days as the pre-eminent holder of the exalted title ‘Discoverer of the Law of Gravity’ is in grave peril. Enter stage left, Brahmagupta who saw the apple fall from a tree in his garden over 1,000 years prior to Newton's rip-off discovery and went, ‘Eureka, the apple fell from the tree in a straight, perpendicular line, drawn by the earth's core. I have discovered Gravity’. Now the exclamatory ‘Eureka’, of course, has been credited to Archimedes (287 BC - 212 BC), his bathtub, and the subsequent displacement of water, known as the Archimedes principle of buoyancy. In his uncontrollable excitement, Archimedes is said to have jumped out of his bathtub, running naked all over the house yelling the magic words, ‘Eureka, Eureka’ . Yes, he said it twice over, and who can blame him. There are those who aver that he only exclaimed those words when he a...

By Lillie Therieau While not much is known about the life of ancient Indian mathematician Brahamagupta, his contributions to math, astronomy, and science have shaped the modern world. He was one of the first mathematicians to explore the properties of the number zero, and the first to record his ideas about it in writing. He’s also credited with important astronomical discoveries like the fact that the Moon is closer to Earth than the Sun. Remarkably, he set his complex math and science ideas out in a book composed entirely in metered poetic verse! Learning about this extraordinary thinker, you’ll be shocked at the number of discoveries he made that inform our everyday lives. You’ll also get an underrepresented peek into the world of ancient Indian mathematicians and astronomers, whose prolific work put the ancient Greeks to shame. The Mysterious Life of Brahmagupta Unfortunately, not much is known about the details of Brahmagupta’s personal life. The only surviving records which describe him focus mainly on his mathematical and scientific contributions. However, we do know that Brahmagupta was born in 598 CE in Bhillamala, in the Gurjaradesa region of India. He was a Hindu, and a Shaivite specifically. Shaivism is still one of the largest denominations of Hinduism and adherents worship the god Shiva as the supreme ruler. Bhillamala was the capital of the Gurjaradesa region and one of the biggest cities in India at the time. It was a beacon for academics throughout the reg...

(598–665?). One of the most accomplished of the ancient Indian astronomers was Brahmagupta. He also had a profound and direct influence on Islamic and Byzantine astronomy. Brahmagupta was born in 598 an orthodox Hindu, and his religious views, particularly the Hindu yuga system of measuring the ages of humankind, influenced his work. He severely criticized Jain Brahmagupta’s fame rests mostly on his Brahma-sphuta-siddhanta (628; “Correctly Established Doctrine of Brahma”), an astronomical work that he probably wrote while living in Bhillamala, then the capital of the Khandakhadyaka (665; “A Piece Eatable”), an In addition to expounding on traditional Indian astronomy in his books, Brahmagupta devoted several chapters of Brahma-sphuta-siddhanta to pati-ganita (“mathematics of procedures,” or algorithms) and bija-ganita (“mathematics of seeds,” or equations), which roughly correspond to arithmetic (including mensuration) and algebra, respectively. Chapter 12 is simply named “Mathematics,” probably because the “basic operations,” such as arithmetic operations and proportions, and the “practical mathematics,” such as mixture and series, treated there occupied the major part of the mathematics of Brahmagupta’s milieu. He stressed the importance of these topics as a qualification for a mathematician, or calculator ( ganaka). Chapter 18, “Pulverizer,” is named after the first topic of the chapter, probably because no particular name for this area (algebra) existed yet. Among his ...