Bhaskara I
Topic: Gupta Empire and the Classical Age · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 3 "Empires and Kingdoms: 6th to 10th Centuries"
Meaning
Bhaskara I was a 7th-century Indian mathematician and astronomer. He followed the school of Aryabhata. He explained and defended Aryabhata's ideas. He also did early work in trigonometry, the branch of mathematics that deals with angles and the sides of triangles. He gave a simple formula for finding the sine (a value linked to an angle) without using a table. He also wrote numbers in the decimal place-value system, using a small circle for zero.
Example
In 629 CE, Bhaskara I wrote a detailed commentary on Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya. The Aryabhatiya had been written at Kusumapura, near Patna, in c. 500 CE.
Don't confuse with
- Bhaskara II (Bhaskaracharya): a 12th-century mathematician who wrote the Lilavati. Bhaskara I lived about 500 years earlier.
Related concepts
- Aryabhata
- Aryabhatiya
- Hindu-Arabic numerals
- Bakhshali manuscript
- Surya Siddhanta
- Varahamihira
- Virahanka
- Kalidasa
- Abhijnanashakuntalam
- Meghaduta