Legend - Aryabhatta - The Ancient Genius

Aryabhatta - The Ancient Genius

Who

Aryabhata was the first of the major mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. His works include the Āryabhaṭīya and the Arya-siddhanta. Aryabhata mentions in the Aryabhatiya that it was composed when he was 23 years old. This corresponds to 499 AD,. Aryabhata called himself a native of Kusumapura or Pataliputra (present day Patna). Bhāskara I describes Aryabhata as āśmakīya, "one belonging to the Aśmaka country."  he went to Kusumapura for advanced studies and lived there for some time.

How

Aryabhata's major work, Aryabhatiya, was extensively referred to in the Indian mathematical literature and has survived to modern times. The mathematical part of Aryabhatiya covers arithmetic, algebra, plane trigonometry, value place system and spherical trigonometry. It also contains continued fractions, quadratic equations, sums-of-power series and a table of sines. Aryabhata worked on the approximation for pi (π) and may have come to the conclusion that (π) is irrational. He also described the Motion of Solar System, details of Eclipses, Sidereal Rotation periods and Heliocentrism.

 

Facts

Born : 476 AD

Died : 550 AD

Notable works : Aryabhatiya, Arya - siddhanta

Notable ideas : 

• Explanation lunar eclipse and Solar eclipse, rotation of earth.
• Reflection of light by moon,
• Sinusoidal functions, solution of Single variable quadratic equations,
• Value of (π) correct to 4 decimal places.