pratiksha's blogs

Bhaskaracharya's Lilavati: Born in a Deshastha Brahmin family of scholars, mathematicians and astronomers, Bhaskara was the leader of a cosmic observatory at Ujjain, the main mathematical centre of ancient India. Bhāskara and his works represent a significant contribution to mathematical and astronomical knowledge in the 12th century. He has been called the greatest mathematician of medieval India. His main work Siddhānta-Śiromani, (Sanskrit for "Crown of Treatises") is divided into four parts called Līlāvatī, Bījagaṇita, Grahagaṇita and Golādhyāya, which are also sometimes considered four independent works. These four sections deal with arithmetic, algebra, mathematics of the planets, and spheres respectively. He also wrote another treatise named Karaṇā Kautūhala. Using an astronomical model developed by Brahmagupta in the 7th century, Bhāskara accurately defined many astronomical quantities, including, for example, the length of the sidereal year, the time that is requi...

  As Mentioned in Chanakya Arthashastra  Chanakya was the political mentor of the legendary   Indian monarch Chandragupta Maurya of 4 th century BC. He was a man learned in many disciplines and wrote the famous book arthashastra. In it, he mentioned two types if DHANUSHA, consisting of 96 ANGULAS, and the other dhanusha is mentioned as garhpatya dhanusha and consists of 108 angulas, used for measurement of roads and distances. Chanakya also mentions that a dhanurgraha consists of 4 angulas and a yojana consists of 8000 dhanushas. Uniform units of length were used in planning of towns such as lothal, surkotada, kalibangan, dolavira, harrappa, and mohenjodaro. In the 1930-31 season at mohenjodaro, ernest mackay discovered a broken piece of shell bearing 8 divisions of 6.7056mm each, with a dot and a circle five graduations apart, which suggests a decimal system. However, attempts by mackay, to relate such a unit to attempts by mackay, to relate such a unit to the dimensi...