Sridhara

Sridhara was a 9th century Indian mathematician.

The time of his work results from the fact that he is quoted by Aryabhata II (10th century) and refers to Abhayadeva Suri (around 1050) and Mahavira (9th century). He was Hindu and possibly born in Bengal or South India. Otherwise little is known about him.

The works Trisatika (also called Patiganitasara) and Patiganita and some other works are ascribed to him. They are cited by Bhaskara II , among others (around 1150). The Pataganitasara is a shorter summary of the Patiganita. One copy of the patiganita has been preserved (from Kashmir). It is written in verse, gives no evidence and is only partially preserved (the Pataganitasara gives a summary of what is missing). Among other things, elementary arithmetic operations (including the use of zero) and the drawing of square roots and cube roots, separated into whole and rational numbers, rules for the area of ​​some flat polygons, formulas for rows and the number of combinations are dealt with. Treatment is based on solving problems from a wide variety of everyday areas. The text is introduced by the treatment of measures and coins. The text breaks off in the middle of handling the content of polygons.

His treatment of the solution of quadratic equations is known from a lost work on algebra and only about the representation by Bhaskara II.

literature

• David Pingree , article in Dictionary of Scientific Biography
• K. Shankar Shukla: The Patiganita of Sridharacarya , Lucknow, 1959
• A Russian edition of the Patiganita appeared in 1966 by AI Volodarsky, OF Volkovoy in Fiziko-matematicheskie nauki v stranakh vostoka, Moscow, 1966, pp. 141-246
• A Sanskrit edition of the Trisatika comes from Sudhakara Dvivedi (Benares 1899), an English translation of large parts was published by N. Ramanujacharia, GR Kaye, Bibliotheca matematica, 3rd series, volume 13, 1912/13, pp. 203-217

Web links

• John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson :  Sridhara. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .