Multiplication from Lilavati to the Summa

Abstract

Many of the multiplication techniques used in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe can be traced to India, specifically through a book called Lilavati (The Beautiful) by Bhaskara (1114–85). Although many of us find mathematics to be beautiful, the name is unusual for a mathematics book. According to a translation by the fifteenth-century Persian poet Fyzi, a story lies behind the book's name. Astrologers predicted that Bhaskara's daughter, Lilavati, would have an unfortunate marriage unless she married at a certain time on a certain day. Lilavati, in anticipation of her marriage at this special time, was watching a water clock. Unfortunately, when she bent over the water clock, a pearl dropped off her headdress and stopped the water from flowing out of the clock. Lilavati missed the time for the ceremony, and because she did not want to risk an unhappy marriage, she never wed. To offer Lilavati solace, Bhaskara named his book after her because it would be a book that “will last to the latest times” (Burton 1988, p. 236; Calinger 1999, p. 279).