ARYABHATTA

Aryabhatawas the first of the major

mathematician-astronomersfrom the
classical age ofIndian mathematicsand
Indian astronomy.

Aryabhata mentions in theAryabhatiya that it

was composed 3,600 years into theKali Yuga, when
he was 23 years old. This corresponds to 499 CE,
and implies that he was born in 476. Aryabhata
called himself a native of Kusumapura orPataliputra
(present dayPatna,Bihar).
HIS WORKS
His 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
mathematical part of theAryabhatiyacoversarithmetic,algebra
,plane trigonometry, andspherical trigonometry. It also
containscontinued fractions,quadratic equations, sums-of-
power series, and atable of sines.

Theplace-valuesystem, first seen in the 3rd-century

Bakhshali Manuscript, was clearly in place in his work.
While he did not use a symbol forzero, the French
mathematicianGeorges Ifrahargues that knowledge of
zero was implicit in Aryabhata'splace-value systemas a
place holder for the powers of ten withnullcoefficients.
ARYABHATTA THE SATELLITE
India's first satellite Aryabhata and the
lunar crater Aryabhata are named in
his honor. An Institute for conducting
research in astronomy, astrophysics
and atmospheric sciences is the
Aryabhatta Research Institute of Obser
vational Sciences
(ARIES) near Nainital, India. The inter-
school Aryabhata Maths Competition
is also named after him,[ as is Bacillus
aryabhata, a species of bacteria
discovered in the stratosphere by ISRO
scientists in 2009.
SRINIVASA
RAMANUJAN