ARYABHATA

          The first Indian space satellite was named Aryabhata to honour this great mathematician and astronomer. He was also known as Asmak after the community to which his ancestors belonged. His treatise, Aryabhatiya, is the earliest existing work on mathematics and scientifically accurate planetary astronomy. This led to the formation of a new school of thought named after him.

          He was born in Kerala in 476 A.D. Typical of the times, he lived in, little was recorded of his personal life to the extent that the date of his death is not known. It is known, however, that he settled at the celebrated University of Nalanda, near Patna in Bihar, also known as Kasumpur or Patliputra. Here he wrote his masterpiece using the great observatory Khagole, at the age of 23. King Buddha Gupta made him head of the university in recognition of his merit. The date of his treatise Aryabhatiya is of special significance because the position of the planets, at that time, obtained by his astronomical constants, did not need any further correction.

          Of his disciples, Latadeva and Nissanku deserve special mention. Latadeva introduced two methods of calculating the day, one from midnight at Sri Lanka, and the other from sunset in Yavanpura. He also authored two treatises Romaka Sidhanta and Paulis Sidhanta, and was hailed as an Acharya or Professor.

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          Aryabhata's great contributions, the first in the world of mathematics, covered geometry, mensuration, algebra and trigonometry, square root, cube root, progressions and calculations rerated to the celestial sphere. In his old age, he wrote a valuable text book entitled Aryabhata Siddhanta, only parts of which are currently available. This treatise earned him immortal fame.He developed the method of writing in words, numbers upto twelve figures in easily learnt poems.

          He stated that the earth was round and rotated on its axis, resulting in day and night. Like Ptolemy of Greece, he believed that the earth was at the centre of the universe but gave a more accurate concept of epicycles. He proposed a new method of determining the true positions of the planets. Aryabhatiya covered the entirecountry and numerous commentaries were written on it right upto the nineteenth century. His works have studied like the scriptures and used in constructing the Indian calendar. Thus Aryabhata attained an immortal and unique position in the galaxy of great Indian mathematicians and astronomers.

          His other contributions include discovery of the causes of solar and lunar eclipses. He was the first and fore most mathematical genius in the world, a forerunner of Newton and others, who were to be born more than thousand years later.

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