Aryabhatta

Who was Aryabhatta?

Aryabhata, also called Aryabhata I or Aryabhata the Elder, (born 476, possibly Ashmaka or Kusumapura, India), astronomer and the earliest Indian mathematician whose work and history are available to modern scholars. He is also known as Aryabhata I or Aryabhata the Elder to distinguish him from a 10th-century Indian mathematician of the same name. He flourished in Kusumapura—near Patalipurta (Patna), then the capital of the Gupta dynasty—where he composed at least two works, Aryabhatiya (c. 499) and the now lost Aryabhatasiddhanta

Aryabhatasiddhanta circulated mainly in the northwest of India and, through the Sāsānian dynasty (224–651) of Iran, had a profound influence on the development of Islamic astronomy. Its contents are preserved to some extent in the works of Varahamihira (flourished c. 550), Bhaskara I (flourished c. 629), Brahmagupta (598–c. 665), and others. It is one of the earliest astronomical works to assign the start of each day to midnight. Aryabhatiya was particularly popular in South India, where numerous mathematicians over the ensuing millennium wrote commentaries. The work was written in verse couplets and deals with mathematics and astronomy. Following an introduction that contains astronomical tables and Aryabhata’s system of phonemic number notation in which numbers are represented by a consonant-vowel monosyllable, the work is divided into three sections: Ganita (“Mathematics”), Kala-kriya (“Time Calculations”), and Gola (“Sphere”).

Childhood & Early Life

Aryabhata’s birthplace is uncertain, but it may have been in the area known in ancient texts as Ashmaka, which may have been Maharashtra or Dhaka or in Kusumapura in present day Patna. Some archaeological evidence suggests that he came from the present day Kodungallur, the historical capital city of Thiruvanchikkulam of ancient Kerala - this theory is strengthened by the several commentaries on him having come from Kerala. He went to Kusumapura for advanced studies and lived there for some time. Both Hindu and Buddhist traditions, as well as Bhāskara I, the 7th Century mathematician, identify Kusumapura as modern Patna.

Major Works

Aryabhata’s major work, Aryabhatiya, a compendium of mathematics and astronomy, was extensively referred to in the Indian mathematical literature, and has survived to modern times. The Aryabhatiya covers arithmetic, algebra, and trigonometry.

Top 10 Facts You Did Not Know About Aryabhata

Aryabhata is credited to have set up an observatory at the Sun temple in Taregana, Bihar. Some sources suggest that Kerala was Aryabhata's main place of life and activity but others refute this statement. He served as the head of an institution (kulapa) at Kusumapura and might have also been the head of the Nalanda university. Some scholars claim that the Arabic text ‘Al ntf’ or ‘Al-nanf’ is a translation of one of his works. His most famous text, ‘Aryabhatiya’, consists of 108 verses and 13 introductory verses. Aryabhata did not use the Brahmi numerals; he used letters of the alphabet to denote numbers. It is probable that he might have come to the conclusion that 'pi' is irrational. He discussed the concept of ‘sine’ in his work by the name of “ardha-jya”, which literally means "half-chord". Calendric calculations devised by Aryabhata are used for fixing the ‘Panchangam’ (the Hindu Calendar). He correctly stated that the earth rotates about its axis daily.

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