Biography
Born: about 750 BC in India
Died: about 750 BC in India
Manava was the author of one of the Sulbasutras. The Manava Sulbasutra is not the oldest (the one by Baudhayana is older) nor is it one of the most important, there being at least three Sulbasutras which are considered more important. We do not know Manava's dates accurately enough to even guess at a life span for him, which is why we have given the same approximate birth year as death year. Historians disagree on 750 BC, and some would put this Sulbasutra later by one hundred or more years.
Manava would have not have been a mathematician in the sense that we would understand it today. Nor was he a scribe who simply copied manuscripts like Ahmes. He would certainly have been a man of very considerable learning but probably not interested in mathematics for its own sake, merely interested in using it for religious purposes. Undoubtedly he wrote the Sulbasutra to provide rules for religious rites and it would appear an almost certainty that Manava himself would be a Vedic priest.
The mathematics given in the Sulbasutras is there to enable accurate construction of altars needed for sacrifices. It is clear from the writing that Manava, as well as being a priest, must have been a skilled craftsman.
Manava's Sulbasutra, like all the Sulbasutras, contained approximate constructions of circles from rectangles, and squares from circles, which can be thought of as giving approximate values of ?. There appear therefore different values of ? throughout the Sulbasutra, essentially every construction involving circles leads to a different such approximation. The paper is concerned with an interpretation of verses 11.14 and 11.15 of Manava's work which give ? = 25/8 = 3.125.
- Mathematicians
CARL FEDRICH GAUSSALBERT EINSTEINSir Isaac NewtonLeonhard EulerRené DescartesJoseph-Louis LagrangeJean Baptiste Joseph FourierGuillaume François Antoine Marquis de L'HôpitalJules Henri PoincaréNiels Henrik AbelEuclidSrinivasa Aiyangar RamanujanGodfrey...
- Apastamba
To write a biography of Apastamba is essentially impossible since nothing is known of him except that he was the author of a Sulbasutra which is certainly later than the Sulbasutra of Baudhayana. It would also be fair to say that Apastamba's Sulbasutra...
- Ahmes
Born: about 1680 BC in Egypt Died: about 1620 BC in Egypt Ahmes is the scribe who wrote the Rhind Papyrus (named after the Scottish Egyptologist Alexander Henry Rhind who went to Thebes for health reasons, became interested in excavating and purchased...
- Baudhayana
To write a biography of Baudhayana is essentially impossible since nothing is known of him except that he was the author of one of the earliest Sulbasutras. We do not know his dates accurately enough to even guess at a life span for him, which is why...
- Aryabhata Ii
Born: about 920 in India Died: about 1000 in India Essentially nothing is known of the life of Aryabhata II. Historians have argued about his date and have come up with many different theories. In [1] Pingree gives the date for his main publications...
Biography
Manava
Born: about 750 BC in India
Died: about 750 BC in India
Manava was the author of one of the Sulbasutras. The Manava Sulbasutra is not the oldest (the one by Baudhayana is older) nor is it one of the most important, there being at least three Sulbasutras which are considered more important. We do not know Manava's dates accurately enough to even guess at a life span for him, which is why we have given the same approximate birth year as death year. Historians disagree on 750 BC, and some would put this Sulbasutra later by one hundred or more years.
Manava would have not have been a mathematician in the sense that we would understand it today. Nor was he a scribe who simply copied manuscripts like Ahmes. He would certainly have been a man of very considerable learning but probably not interested in mathematics for its own sake, merely interested in using it for religious purposes. Undoubtedly he wrote the Sulbasutra to provide rules for religious rites and it would appear an almost certainty that Manava himself would be a Vedic priest.
The mathematics given in the Sulbasutras is there to enable accurate construction of altars needed for sacrifices. It is clear from the writing that Manava, as well as being a priest, must have been a skilled craftsman.
- Mathematicians
CARL FEDRICH GAUSSALBERT EINSTEINSir Isaac NewtonLeonhard EulerRené DescartesJoseph-Louis LagrangeJean Baptiste Joseph FourierGuillaume François Antoine Marquis de L'HôpitalJules Henri PoincaréNiels Henrik AbelEuclidSrinivasa Aiyangar RamanujanGodfrey...
- Apastamba
To write a biography of Apastamba is essentially impossible since nothing is known of him except that he was the author of a Sulbasutra which is certainly later than the Sulbasutra of Baudhayana. It would also be fair to say that Apastamba's Sulbasutra...
- Ahmes
Born: about 1680 BC in Egypt Died: about 1620 BC in Egypt Ahmes is the scribe who wrote the Rhind Papyrus (named after the Scottish Egyptologist Alexander Henry Rhind who went to Thebes for health reasons, became interested in excavating and purchased...
- Baudhayana
To write a biography of Baudhayana is essentially impossible since nothing is known of him except that he was the author of one of the earliest Sulbasutras. We do not know his dates accurately enough to even guess at a life span for him, which is why...
- Aryabhata Ii
Born: about 920 in India Died: about 1000 in India Essentially nothing is known of the life of Aryabhata II. Historians have argued about his date and have come up with many different theories. In [1] Pingree gives the date for his main publications...