Document about our great mathematician

5.  Introduction
 Aryabhata
 Bhaskaracharya
 Varaha Mihira
 Srinivasa Ramanujan
 Conclusion
 Bibliography

6.  The history of 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 is said 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: 1114 in 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: 505 in 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 Ramanujan Iyengar (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 wish to 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.

16.  Internet
 https://en.m.wikipedia.org
 Google Images