Art. XV.—On some Fragments of Áryabhaṭṭa

Abstract

There are few names in the history of Indian science which have acquired a celebrity equalling that of Áryabhaṭṭa. He is—to use the words of Colebrooke—“the earliest author known to have treated of Algebra among the Hindus, and likely to be, if not the inventor, the improver, of that analysis; by whom, too, it was pushed nearly to the whole degree of excellence which it is found to have attained among them.” But, notwithstanding the renown of the Indian algebraist and astronomer, not only among his countrymen, but also among the Arabian scholars, his works seemed to be lost. Neither was Colebrooke successful, nor was Davis more so, in their endeavours to find any work of his. What was known about his doctrine, which in many points deviated from the prevailing opinions among Indian astronomers, was derived from quotations occurring in various mathematical and astronomical writings. Now, it is deserving of notice, that in Southern India there are copies extant of works that most unequivocally lay claim to being the genuine productions of Áryabhaṭṭa. The late Mr. Whish knew an Áryabhaṭṭíyam, a treatise on arithmetic and mathematics, to which I shall have to revert in the course of this paper. Prof. Lassen says, in his Indische Alterthumskunde, that he has received from Southern India copies of two works ascribed to Áryabhaṭṭa, viz., of the above-mentioned Áryabhaṭṭíyam and of the Daṣagítakasútra. In an article on the Ārya-siddhánta in the 6th volume of the Journal of the American Oriental Society, Dr. Fitz-Edward Hall has verified an Ārya-siddhánta, of which he possessed two imperfect copies, by extracts occurring in the writings of various commentators.