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Great Indian Mathematicians
- 5. Introduction Aryabhata Bhaskaracharya Varaha Mihira Srinivasa Ramanujan Conclusion Bibliography
- 6. The historyof science, and specifically mathematics, is a vast topic and one which can never be completely studied as much of the work of ancient times remains undiscovered or has been lost through time. Nevertheless there is much that is known and many important discoveries have been made, especially over the last 150 years, which have significantly altered the chronology of the history of mathematics, and the conceptions that had been commonly held prior to that. By the turn of the 21st century it was fair to say that there was definite knowledge of where and when a vast majority of the significant developments of mathematics occurred. I became drawn to the topic of Indian mathematics, as there appeared to be a distinct and inequitable neglect of the contributions of the sub-continent. Thus, during the course of this project I aim to discuss that despite slowly changing attitudes there is still an ideology' which plagues much of the recorded history of the subject. That is, to some extent very little has changed even in our seemingly enlightened historical and cultural position, and, in specific reference to my study area, many of the developments of Indian mathematics remain almost completely ignored, or worse, attributed to scholars of other nationalities, often European.
- 8. Aryabhata issaid to have been born in 476 A.D at a town called Ashmaka in today’s Indian state of Kerala. When he was still a young boy he had been sent to the University of Nalanda to study Astronomy. He made significant contributions to the field of Astronomy. He also propounded the Heliocentric theory of gravitation, thus predating Copernicus by almost one thousand years. Aryabhatta’s Magnum Opus, the Aryabhattiya was translated into Latin in the 13th Century. Through this translation, European mathematicians got to know methods for calculating the areas of triangles, volumes of spheres as well as square and cube root.
- 10. Born: 1114in Vijayapura, India Died: 1185 in Ujjain, India Bhaskaracharya also known as the Bhaskara II, this latter name meaning, “Bhaskara the Teacher”. He is known in India as Bhaskaracharya. Bhaskaracharya’s father was a Brahmin named Mahesvara. Mahesvara himself was famed as an astrologer. Six works by Bhaskaracharya are known but a seventh work, which is claimed to be by him, is thought by many historians to be a late forgery.
- 12. Born: 505in Kapitthaka, India Died: 587 in India Our knowledge of varaha mihira is very limited indeed. According to one of his works, he was educated in Kapitthaka. We do know, however, that he worked at Ujjain which had been an important centre for mathematics, since around 400AD. The school of mathematics at Ujjain was increased in importance due to Varaha Mihira working there and it continued for a long period to be one of the two leading mathematical centres in India.
- 14. Srinivasa RamanujanIyengar (22 December 1887 – 26 April 1920) was an Indian mathematician and autodidact who, with almost no formal training in pure mathematics, made extraordinary contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions. Ramanujan initially developed his own mathematical research in isolation; it was quickly recognized by Indian mathematicians. When his skills became apparent to the wider mathematical community, centred in Europe at the time, he began a famous partnership with the English mathematician G. H. Hardy. He rediscovered previously known theorems in addition to producing new work.
- 15. I wishto conclude initially by simply saying that the work of Indian mathematicians has been severely neglected by western historians, although the situation is improving somewhat. What I primarily wished to tackle was to answer two questions, firstly, why have Indian works been neglected, that is, what appears to have been the motivations and aims of scholars who have contributed to the Eurocentric view of mathematical history. This leads to the secondary question, why should this neglect be considered a great injustice.
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