Early Mathematical Contributions from India

Early Indian Mathematics

Indus Valley
• 3000 BC
• Highly Ancient Indian
Culture
• Harappan Civilization
• Archaeological
Excavations at Mohenjo
Daro
• Northeast of Karachin in
Pakistan
Indus Valley
• Wide Streets
• Brick Dwellings
• Apartment Houses
• Tiled Bathrooms
• Covered City Drains
• Community Swimming
Houses
Indus Valley
• Systems of Counting
• Writing
• Weights and Measures
Indus Valley
• 3000 BC
• Traded with Sumerians
and Akkadians in
Babylonia
• No Written Mathematical
Documents from this Era
 Aryan Settlement– 1800 B.C.
 Crossed over Himalayas into
India
 Sanskrit word for
“nobleman” or “owners of
land”
 Some wandered into Europe
 The rest extended
settlements throughout India
 Perfected written and
spoken Sanskrit
 Introduced Caste System
Vedas – Sacred Texts
 1500 B.C.
 Vedic People entered
India
 From region that is
currently Iran
 Vedic Mathematics is
contained in
Sulbasutras
 16 Sutras – Rules for
Arithmetic
 Gained in Popularity
in 1900’s and again in
1980’s
You try!
1. Multiply 134 x 246
2. Multiply 942 x 108
3. Multipy 450 x 123
1. 2,10,6+12+8,18+16,24 = 2,10,26,34,24=32964
2. 9,4,74,32,16=101736
3. 4,13,22,15,0=55350
Vedic Mathematics
 Base 10
 Invoked powers of 10 from 100 to 1 trillion
 Included Rules for
 Addition

 Subtraction

 Multiplication

 Division

 Fractions

 Squares

 Cubes

 Roots
Jaina Mathematics
 600 BC – 1700 AD: Jainism religion and philosophy founded in India
 Replaced Vedic religion
 Surya Prajnapti and Jambidvipa Prajnapti – 400 B.C Texts
 Bhagabati Sutra – 300 B.C. mathematics text regarding
combanitorics
 Sthananga Sutra – 200 B.C. mathematics text
 Number Theory
 Arithmetic
 Geometry
 Simple linear, cubic equations
 Combinatorics
To Infinity and Beyond
 Jainan religion concept of
time and cosmology
 Was thought of as eternal and
without form
 World was infinite – never
created, always existed
 Space pervades everything –
without form
 Were fascinated with large
numbers
Large Numbers in Jaina
 Cosmology – time period 2588

 Construction to stretch mind

 Start with Cylinder with radius = radius of earth
 Let h be the height
 Let n = number of mustard seeds that can be placed in this container
 Still the highest enumerable number has not been attained
 “Infinity is bigger than that”
 5 different types of infinity
 Infinite in one direction
 Infinite in two directions
 Infinite in area
 Infinite everywhere
 Perpetually Infinite
Aryabhata – 476 AD – 550 AD
 Aryabhata 1
 Wrote Aryabhatiya – mathematical and astronomical text
 33 verses on mathematical rules without proof
 25 verses on time and planetary models
 50 verses on spheres and eclipses
Aryabhatiya - Mathematics
 Arithmetic
 Algebra
 Trigonometry on a plane
 Trigonometry on a sphere
 Continued Fractions
 Quadratic Equations
 Sums of Power Series
 Table of Sines
Aryabhatiya-Mathematical Contributions
 Calculations with zero
 Euclidean Algorithm
 Accurate approximation of pi =
3.141
 Table of sine for each 3.45 degrees
 Introduced Cosine
 Sum of first n integers, first n
squares and first n cubes
 Believed earth rotated on axis
 Believed Moon and Planets shine by
reflected sunlight
 Correctly explained eclipses
 His value for a year = 365 days and 6
hours ( > actual value by minutes)
Brahmagupta –598 - 668 A.D
 Mathematician and
Astronomer
 From Rajashtan – Northwest
India
 Head of Astronomical
Observatory at Ujjain in
Central India
 Elliptic Verse Mathematics
 Poetic Ring
Brahmasphutasiddhanta
 “The revised system of Brahma”
 Mostly Astronomy
 2 Chapters devoted to Math
 Algebraic Method of Inversion:
“Beautiful Maiden with beaming eyes,
tell me, as thou understands the right
method of inversion, which is the
number which multiplied by 3, then
increased by ¾ of the product, then
divided by 7, diminished by 1/3 of the
quotient, multiplied by itself,
diminished by 52, by the extraction of a
square root, addition of 8, and division
by 10 gives the number 2?”
Hindu Mathematical Writing
 Unlike Modern mathematics, addition was indicated by juxtaposition, rather
than multiplication.
 Subtraction: dot over the subtrahend
 Multiplication: writing bha after factors
 bhavita “product”
 Division: writing divisor beneath the dividend
 Square Root: writing ka
 karana “irrational”
 Unknown: writing ya
 Yavattavat “so much as”
 Known integers: Ru
 Rupa “the absolute number”
Hindu Mathematical Insight
 Hindus included negatives and irrational numbers
 Recognized quadratics had two formal roots
 Solved quadratics by completing square
 Geometry was empirical
 Brahmagupta and Mahavira extended Heron’s Formula
Brahmagupta’s Formula
Find the area of the quadrilateral
below.
Identify if it’s cyclic first.