THE GREAT MATHEMAGICIAN: ARYABHATTA

Aryabhatta, a famous mathematician and astronomer of ancient India, was born in 476 AD in
Kerala. He completed his studies at the famous ancient university of Nalanda; which is in the
present state of Bihar. He was the first in the line of great mathematician-astronomers from the
classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy.
He was the very first to find the radius of the earth and was the only one in ancient time including
the Greeks and the Romans to find the volume of the earth. Aryabhatta made a amazing declaration
that Earth is spherical and it rotates on its own axis which results in day and night. He even
concluded that the moon is dark and shines because of the light of sun. He gave a logical explanation
to the theory of solar and lunar eclipses. He declared that eclipses are caused due to the shadows
casted by the Earth and the moon. Aryabhatta proposed the geocentric model of the solar system
which states that the Earth is in the center of the universe and also laid the foundation for the
concept of Gravitation. His work was of great influence in the Indian astronomical tradition. His
suggested methods of astronomical calculations in his Aryabhatta-Siddhatha which was used to
make the the Hindu calendar i.e Panchanga.
In fact, modern names "sine" and "cosine" are typewritten copy of the words jya and kojya as
introduced by Aryabhata. He suggested formula to calculate the areas of a triangle and a circle,
which were correct. He gave the value of

as 3.01416, place value system with zero, and he was the

first mathematician to what later came to be called the table of since. His method to find solution to
indeterminate equations of the type ax by = c is also recognized the world over. His method to
find out the solution indeterminate; an equator of this type is recognized the world over. He also
formed a novel method to express large number such as 100,000,000,000 in words. He developed
the method unwieldy numbers in poetic form.
This exceptional man boasted to baffle many mathematicians of today. Aryabhatta is considered to
be one of the mathematicians who changed the course of mathematics and astronomy to a great
extent. In his honour ; the Indian government named its first satellite Aryabhata ; which was
launched in 1975.An Institute for conducting research in astronomy, astrophysics and atmospheric
sciences is the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIOS) near Nainital, India.
The inter-school Aryabhata Maths Competition is also named after him, as is Bacillus aryabhata.