You are on page 1of 2

Second, nearness of numbers does not necessarily translate into the similar patt

ern. We known that \sqrt{10} was used often in early Hindu mathematics as an app
roximation for \pi correct to one decimal place. However, this number produces a
wandering curve that is not at all similar to that of \pi. Then we see the famo
us approximation used by Ramanujan \dfrac{355}{113} correct to six decimal place
s. It being a rational number does not produce a fractal pattern but a linear se
quence of highly folded beads connected by a linker element. This resembles the un
folded nucleosome-DNA complex in archaea and eukaryotes. The real \pi in contras
t has a highly folded bead similar to the former but the linker gradually curls
making curve take an overall spiral form.
In conclusion, here we see numbers playing a different role: different from thei
r role as the backdrop of the smooth continuity of curves emerging as solutions
to differential equations but as abstractions similar to syllabic strings, which
can be acted upon by simple rules to generate complexity. Here, the actual stri
ngs of the digits matter. Seeming uniformly distributed sequences of digits can
produce complex patterns that are far from random when sent through the appropri
ate rules. It would almost seem as though they hide something within them which
is not at all apparent until they are made to reveal them by procedures like the
floor-difference operation or the curlicue algorithm. This complexity can captu
re the forms and behaviors we see in nature and produce grammar-like features so
me of which also emerges from more complex mathematical descriptions of natural
systems.
The possibility of a unified vision
Finally, we intuit the possibility of a unified vision by no means a complete on
e or rigorously hammered out. First, we do see the presence of the an ideal real
m, one might call it Platonic. In our view this is how the parame vyoman and uddha-bhu
vandhvan-s of the tantra-s should be understood. We also hold that the correct way
of understanding the mmsaka nityatvam of the word is in this sense rather than the
physical ruti composed by our rya ancestors starting from the early Indo-European
period. In this realm reside the numbers or syllables, which are comparable ent
ities in that they are operands of a collection of operations or rules, which in
themselves might be simple. However, they are capable of generating great all t
he complexity we see in the world and mathematics. When this ideal world shapes th
e world of matter-energy we see its expression as a different type of number, th
e number of measurement. It is this number that appears directly in the sciences
. The attempt to apprehend the structure residing in these numbers leads to the
discovery of mathematics.
In a biographical sense all this unfolded gradually over time story which we mig
ht narrate at some other point with different illustrations and more detailed ac
knowledgments of our influences. The first phase of our life was marked by our e
xperiments in Euclidean geometry and plane curves which culminated around our 14
th year in the penetration of calculus. It was the high-point of our personal ma
thematical attainment in that direction which allowed us to advance into the qua
ntum theory and relativity in physics to the extent we could. As we were fightin
g our way through Diracs book on bra and ket vectors in the summer of our 14th ye
ar, on one hand we felt great pleasure with what we had managed to understand bu
t on the other the insurmountable mathematical complexities that underpinned an
even deeper conquest of physics put us in place. But our experience was one whic
h nevertheless resounded with the triumph of ordinary mathematics a culmination of
the mathematical traditions of the rya-s and yavana-s in one sense. The existenc
e of the ideal realm came into our focus then and it was a very mathematical one
filled with curves. It was around this time we came across an article on the wo
rk of Benoit Mandelbrot in a science magazine. This immediately opened the doors
to a new world, marking the second phase of our life. However, not having easy
or continuous access to a computer this exploration began slowly. But it advance
d over the subsequent years with the completion of our transition from the handheld calculator to the computer and the ideas of Turing and Wolfram become a pra

tyaka. By then we saw a new picture, one converging what has been articulated her
e.
Share this:
GoogleTwitterFacebook6Print
Posted in Heathen thought, Life, Scientific ramblings
Tags: art, biology, curlicue, fractal, fractals, geometry, Hindu, mathematical e
ntity, mathematics, pi, Plato, Platonic ideals, proteins, religion, science
Chaos in the iterative Hindu square root method of the gaaka-rja October 21, 2016 L
eave a Comment
For Hindus big numbers always mattered and our mathematics is quite reflection o
f this fascination. Since the earliest times, Hindus devised various methods to
obtain square roots of numbers, especially approximations of irrational roots co
rrect to multiple decimal places. The earliest of these methods involving a seri
es of terms is seen encoded in the altars for the Soma rituals specified in the
sahit-s of the Yajurveda and explicitly spelled out in their the ulbastra-s. Indeed,
we have evidence that development of these methods continued in the Yajurvaidik
a tradition as indicated by Rma dkitas commentary on Ktyyana where he provides a tradi
tion regarding a further term to the approximation to get \sqrt{2} correct to 7
decimal places. A similar improvement was likely used in the procedure preserved
by Sundararja dkita in the pastamba tradition for an approximate squaring of the ci
rcle based on \sqrt{2}.
By the last few centuries before the common era the Hindus had already discovere
d a method similar to what is today known in the west as the first term Newton-R
aphson approximation. We also see the exact algorithm for both square roots and
cube roots of crya ryabhaa further explained for the lay by Bhskara-I. But the high p
oint of the Hindu tradition of iterative methods is seen in the text of the brmaa C
hajjaka-putra gaaka-rja probably from Mrtikvati (unfortunately named Bakshali manusc
ript: BM), which gives a glimpse of just what Hindu knowledge has been lost over
the ages. While this method was misunderstood by the earlier white indological
translator of the BM, the sophistication of the gaaka-rjas method has only more rec
ently become clear. This has been explained and commented upon in detail by the
computer scientists Bailey and Borwein in their excellent work on the same. We s
hall here comment upon an interesting aspect we discovered of the functions invo
lved in the method .
While the method has already been discussed in detail by Bailey and Borwein, we
shall go over it here for introducing the system. In order the find the square r
oot of a number q the BM suggests the following procedure:
Take some starting number: x_n = x_0

You might also like