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The Līlāvatī is a Sanskrit work on arithmetic and mensuration (computational geometry) composed in or a little before AD 1150 by Bhāskara II, one of the greatest Indian mathematician–astronomers. The Līlāvatī is sometimes regarded as the first part of the Siddhāntaśiromaṇi, a masterpiece on gaṇita (mathematics) in its broad sense (including mathematical astronomy), the other parts being Bījagaṇita, Grahagaṇitādhyāya (Chapter on planetary computation) and Golādhyāya (Chapter on spherical astronomy), but in manuscripts the four parts have been handed down to us independently.

In medieval India, mathematics proper comprised two major fields, pāṭīgaṇita (mathematics of algorithm) and bījagaṇita (“mathematics of seeds” or algebra). The Līlāvatī is the most typical and the most influential work of pāṭīgaṇita. More than 600 manuscripts of the work have been reported so far and more than 30 extant commentaries attest that it was the most popular mathematical textbook in India used by a number...

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References

  • Bhāskara (Bhāskara II, Bhāskarācārya). Līlāvatī. Edited with the commentaries of Gaṇeśa and of Mahīdhara by D. Āpaṭe. Ānandāśrama Sanskrit Series 107. Poona: Ānandāśrama 1937. Also edited with the commentary of Śaṅkara and Nārāyaṇa by K. V. Sarma. Vishveshvaranand Indological Series 66. Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research Institute, 1975.

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  • Colebrooke, H. T. Algebra with Arithmetic and Mensuration from the Sanscrit of Brahmegupta and Bhāscara. London: Murray, 1817. Rpt, Wiesbaden: Martin Sändig 1973. Rpt (with the title, Classics of Indian Mathematics: Algebra, with Arithmetic and Mensuration, From the Sanskrit of Brahmagupta and Bhāskara, and with a Foreword by S. R. Sarma), Delhi: Sharada Publishing House 2005.

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  • Hayashi, T. The Bakhshālī Manuscript: An Ancient Indian Mathematical Treatise. Groningen Oriental Studies 11. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1995.

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  • ‐‐‐. Calculations of the Surface of a Sphere in India. The Science and Engineering Review of Doshisha University 37.4 (1997): 194–238.

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  • ‐‐‐. Notes on the Differences between the Two Recensions of the Līlāvatī of Bhāskara II. SCIAMVS 3 (2002): 193–230.

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  • Patwardhan, K. S., S. A. Naimpally, and S. L. Singh. Līlāvatī of Bhāskarācārya: A Treatise of Mathematics of Vedic Tradition with Rationale in Terms of Modern Mathematics Largely Based on N. H. Phadke's Marāṭhī Translation of Līlāvatī. Delhi: Motilal 2001. (Reviewed by T. Hayashi, Historia Scientiarum 12.2 (2002): 168–74.)

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Hayashi, T. (2008). Līlāvatī. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9263

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9263

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-4559-2

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