India has a rich history in Mathematics

Hyderabad: "Mathematics in India has a rich history going back over thousands of years and thrived for centuries before similar advances were made in the rest of the world", said Dr R V S S Avadhanulu, Chief Executive, Veda Bharathi and former deputy director (computers), NIMS. He delivered a lecture on 'Foundations of Mathematics in ancient India" on 'National Mathematics Day-2021' at GITAM (Deemed to be University) Hyderabad on Thursday.

It was part of the event organised by the Department of Mathematics, School of Science, to commemorate the birth anniversary of legendary Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan.

Dr Avadhanulu said 'ancient and medieval Indian mathematical works were all composed in Sanskrit. They usually consisted of a section of sutras in which a set of rules or problems were stated' .

He recounted the classical period of Indian mathematics and the critical contributions made by scholars such as Aryabhatta, Varaha Mihira, Bhaskara I and II, Vishnugupta, Siddhasena, Manitha, Srijidhwaja, Kalyanavarma, Simhatilakasuri, Kalakacharya, Mahaviracharya, Bhatotpala, Devaswami, Jiva Sharma, Satyacharya and Prithuyasas.

Dr Avadhanulu highlighted the five of India's great inventions, like- Zero, Decimal number system, Binary numbers, Progression and Infinity by quoting Sanskrit slokas.

Prof V K Mittal, director, engineering, School of Technology, delivered a talk on 'Vedic Mathematics and Machine Learning' and explained how Vedas were the cumulative knowledge of mathematics and statistics with 16 sutras and 13 sub-sutras, while machine learning heavily depends on mathematics and statistics.