Essay name: Glories of India (Culture and Civilization)
Author: Prasanna Kumar Acharya
This book, “Glories of India on Indian Culture and Civilization”, emphasizes the importance of recognizing distinct cultural traits across different societies. The historical narrative of Indian civilization highlights advancements in agriculture, medicine, science, and arts, tracing back to ancient times. The author argues for the need to understand the past to meaningfully engage with the present and future.
Page 299 of: Glories of India (Culture and Civilization)
299 (of 510)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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266
INDIAN CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION
of L. C. C., called Niruddha in the Ganita-sara-saṃgraha
of Mahavira (9th century). Pingala (second century
B. C.) used in his Chhanda-sutra the method of permuta-
tion and combination (chhandagaṇita). Arya Bhatta
refers to this and also to arithmetical and geometrical
progression. In his Līlāvati Bhaskarachirya has
demonstrated that when a figure is divided by zero the
result is infinite number.
Bija ganita is the title of the two chapters of the
Siddhanta-siromani of Bhaskaracharya (1150). In English
it is called Algebra because it was borrowed from the
Aljeb-oyal-mokabela of Md. Musa-al-Khoya-rejmi (825).
But the Arabs had learnt it from the Hindus. The
Hindus called this
called this
science both Bija-ganita and
Avyakta-ganita. They discovered the positive (dhana)
and negative (rina) numbers. Brahmagupta (628)
discovered equation (sam karaṇa). Its four varieties
were in use: they are known as simple (ekavar-
ṇa), simultaneous (aneka-varṇa), quadratic (madhyam-
aharana) and Bhavita or equation involving products
of two unknown quantities. Kuṭṭama first solved the
indeterminate equation of the first degree (eka-varṇa-
samikaraṇa). Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta, Śridhara,
Padmanībha, and Bhaskaracharya solved such equations
of algebra as could be done in Europe as late as the
17th r 18th centuries.
In Jyamiti or
geometry Baudhayana (second
century B. C. ) actually solved the theorem long before
it was associated with the name of Grecian Pythagorus,
viz, the square on the hypotenuse of a right angled
triangle is equal to the sum of squares on the other two
sides. He also proved the theorem that the square on
the diagonal of a rectangle is twice the area of the
rectangle. The Sulva sutras also explain how to draw
a square equal to the area of a triangle, and a circle
equal in area of a square. The Surya-siddhanta (5th
century) found out the area of a triangle from its
sides, which in Europe was discovered in the 16th
century by Clouvius. Brahmagupta and Bhaskaracharya
worked out the area of a quadrangle from its
sides. Baudhāyana and Apastamba worked out the
proportion between the diagonal and sides of a square
(1:1.42156) which corresponds to the fifth decimal
of modern finding (1/2 = 1.41423...).
