Aryabhata

Aryabhata’s work was of great influence in the Indian astronomical tradition and influenced several neighboring cultures through translations. Some of his works are cited by Al-Khwarizmi, and in the 10th century by Al-Biruni.

The Aryabhata Knowledge University (AKU), Patna, has been established by the Government of Bihar in his honor for the development and management of educational infrastructure related to technical, medical, management and allied professional education.

India’s first satellite Aryabhata is named in his honor.

Aryabhata’s birthplace is uncertain, but it may have been in the area known in ancient texts as Ashmaka, which may have been Maharashtra or Dhaka or in Kusumapura in present day Patna.

Some archaeological evidence suggests that he came from the present day Kodungallur, the historical capital city of Thiruvanchikkulam of ancient Kerala - this theory is strengthened by the several commentaries on him having come from Kerala.

He went to Kusumapura for advanced studies and lived there for some time. Both Hindu and Buddhist traditions, as well as Bhāskara I, the 7th Century mathematician, identify Kusumapura as modern Patna.

A verse mentions that Aryabhata was the head of an institution (kulapa) at Kusumapura. Since, the University of Nalanda was in Pataliputra, and had an astronomical observatory; it is probable that he was its head too.

Direct details of his work are known only from the Aryabhatiya. His disciple Bhaskara I calls it Ashmakatantra (or the treatise from the Ashmaka).

The Aryabhatiya is also occasionally referred to as Arya-shatas-aShTa (literally, Aryabhata’s 108), because there are 108 verses in the text. It also has 13 introductory verses, and is divided into four pādas or chapters.

Aryabhatiya’s first chapter, Gitikapada, with its large units of time — kalpa, manvantra, and Yuga — introduces a different cosmology. The duration of the planetary revolutions during a mahayuga is given as 4.32 million years.

Ganitapada, the second chapter of Aryabhatiya has 33 verses covering mensuration (kṣetra vyāvahāra), arithmetic and geometric progressions, gnomon or shadows (shanku-chhAyA), simple, quadratic, simultaneous, and indeterminate equations.

Aryabhata’s major work, Aryabhatiya, a compendium of mathematics and astronomy, was extensively referred to in the Indian mathematical literature, and has survived to modern times. The Aryabhatiya covers arithmetic, algebra, and trigonometry.