Aryabhata, also called Aryabhata I or Aryabhata the Elder, (born 476, possibly

Ashmaka or Kusumapura, India), astronomer and the earliest Indian mathematician

whose work and history are available to modern scholars. He is also known as
Aryabhata I or Aryabhata the Elder to distinguish him from a 10th-century Indian
mathematician of the same name. He flourished in Kusumapura�near Patalipurta
(Patna), then the capital of the Gupta dynasty�where he composed at least two
works, Aryabhatiya (c. 499) and the now lost Aryabhatasiddhanta.

Aryabhatasiddhanta circulated mainly in the northwest of India and, through the

Sasanian dynasty (224�651) of Iran, had a profound influence on the development of
Islamic astronomy. Its contents are preserved to some extent in the works of
Varahamihira (flourished c. 550), Bhaskara I (flourished c. 629), Brahmagupta
(598�c. 665), and others. It is one of the earliest astronomical works to assign
the start of each day to midnight.

Aryabhatiya was particularly popular in South India, where numerous mathematicians

over the ensuing millennium wrote commentaries. The work was written in verse
couplets and deals with mathematics and astronomy. Following an introduction that
contains astronomical tables and Aryabhata�s system of phonemic number notation in
which numbers are represented by a consonant-vowel monosyllable, the work is
divided into three sections: Ganita (�Mathematics�), Kala-kriya (�Time
Calculations�), and Gola (�Sphere�).

In Ganita Aryabhata names the first 10 decimal places and gives algorithms for
obtaining square and cubic roots, using the decimal number system. Then he treats
geometric measurements�employing 62,832/20,000 (= 3.1416) for p�and develops
properties of similar right-angled triangles and of two intersecting circles. Using
the Pythagorean theorem, he obtained one of the two methods for constructing his
table of sines. He also realized that second-order sine difference is proportional
to sine. Mathematical series, quadratic equations, compound interest (involving a
quadratic equation), proportions (ratios), and the solution of various linear
equations are among the arithmetic and algebraic topics included. Aryabhata�s
general solution for linear indeterminate equations, which Bhaskara I called
kuttakara (�pulverizer�), consisted of breaking the problem down into new problems
with successively smaller coefficients�essentially the Euclidean algorithm and
related to the method of continued fractions.

With Kala-kriya Aryabhata turned to astronomy�in particular, treating planetary

motion along the ecliptic. The topics include definitions of various units of time,
eccentric and epicyclic models of planetary motion (see Hipparchus for earlier
Greek models), planetary longitude corrections for different terrestrial locations,
and a theory of �lords of the hours and days� (an astrological concept used for
determining propitious times for action).

Aryabhatiya ends with spherical astronomy in Gola, where he applied plane

trigonometry to spherical geometry by projecting points and lines on the surface of
a sphere onto appropriate planes. Topics include prediction of solar and lunar
eclipses and an explicit statement that the apparent westward motion of the stars
is due to the spherical Earth�s rotation about its axis. Aryabhata also correctly
ascribed the luminosity of the Moon and planets to reflected sunlight.

The Indian government named its first satellite Aryabhata (launched 1975) in his
honour.

Takao Hayashi
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in astronomy. Aryabhata, writing in 499, calculated p (pi) to 3.1416 and the solar
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�science were no less significant. Aryabhata in the late 5th century was the
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�and by authors such as Aryabhata (born ad 476), Varahamihira, Brahmagupta (7th
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�in the Aryabhatiya. Its author, Aryabhata I (c. 475�550), used the word ardha-jya
for half-chord, which he sometimes turned around to jya-ardha (�chord-half�); in
due time he shortened it to jya or jiva. Later, when Muslim scholars translated
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In chronology: Eras based on astronomical speculation
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