Who wrote the Brahmasphutasiddhanta in 628 CE, the first work to lay down rules for calculating with zero and with negative numbers?
- A.Aryabhata
- B.Brahmagupta
- C.Varahamihira
- D.Bhaskara II
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Brahmagupta. Brahmagupta composed the Brahmasphutasiddhanta in 628 CE, in which he treated zero as a number and not merely as a placeholder and gave rules for adding, subtracting and multiplying positive and negative quantities, which he called fortunes and debts; he also wrote the Khandakhadyaka and argued that bodies fall because the earth attracts them. Option A is wrong because Aryabhata wrote the Aryabhatiya in 499 CE, more than a century earlier. Option C is wrong because Varahamihira wrote the Panchasiddhantika and the Brihat Samhita, which summarise astronomical schools and a wide range of sciences but do not set out the arithmetic of zero. Option D is wrong because Bhaskara II belongs to the twelfth century and is known for the Siddhanta Shiromani. A question may also ask for the century: Brahmagupta belongs to the seventh century CE and worked at Bhinmal in present-day Rajasthan, while Aryabhata belongs to the fifth and sixth.
Read the full article: Science and Mathematics in Ancient India: Scholars and Texts
Practice Questions
View allThe Aryabhatiya, composed in 499 CE, is divided into which four parts?
- A.Gitikapada, Ganitapada, Kalakriyapada and Golapada
- B.Lilavati, Bijaganita, Grahaganita and Goladhyaya
- C.Gitikapada, Bijaganita, Golapada and Nidana
- D.Ganitapada, Rasayanapada, Kalapada and Jatakapada
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Aryabhata, born in 476 CE, wrote the Aryabhatiya in 499 CE in four sections: the Gitikapada on units of time and the large astronomical cycles, the Ganitapada on mathematics, the Kalakriyapada on the reckoning of time and planetary positions, and the Golapada on the celestial sphere.
Read the full explanation →Lilavati, the celebrated work on arithmetic, is a part of which treatise and by which author?
- A.The Aryabhatiya of Aryabhata
- B.The Ganita Sara Sangraha of Mahaviracharya
- C.The Siddhanta Shiromani of Bhaskara II
- D.The Brihat Samhita of Varahamihira
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Bhaskara II, also called Bhaskaracharya, wrote the Siddhanta Shiromani in 1150 CE in four parts, of which Lilavati deals with arithmetic, mensuration and problems of everyday calculation, Bijaganita with algebra, and Grahaganita and Goladhyaya with astronomy.
Read the full explanation →The Sushruta Samhita is the foundational ancient Indian text on which branch of knowledge?
- A.Astronomy
- B.Surgery
- C.Metallurgy
- D.Grammar
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The Sushruta Samhita is the classical manual of shalya chikitsa or surgery, describing surgical instruments, the removal of the cataract, the setting of fractures, the stitching of wounds and the rebuilding of a severed nose, for which Sushruta is remembered as the father of surgery and of plastic surgery.
Read the full explanation →The Sulbasutras, which contain the earliest Indian geometry, are appendices to which class of texts?
- A.The Upanishads
- B.The Shrauta Sutras
- C.The Puranas
- D.The Jatakas
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The Sulbasutras are appendices to the Shrauta Sutras and give the geometrical rules for laying out the brick altars of Vedic sacrifice, including the construction of squares and rectangles of a given area and the statement that the square on the diagonal equals the sum of the squares on the…
Read the full explanation →The Panchasiddhantika and the Brihat Samhita were written by which ancient Indian scholar?
- A.Varahamihira
- B.Nilakantha Somayaji
- C.Charaka
- D.Kanada
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Varahamihira, who lived in the sixth century, summarised five earlier astronomical schools in the Panchasiddhantika, wrote the encyclopaedic Brihat Samhita covering astronomy, omens, architecture, gems and the finding of underground water, and composed the Brihat Jataka on horoscopy.
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