Ministry of Culture organized the first event of the series Dhara – an Ode to Indian Knowledge System

What is the News?

The Ministry of Culture has announced ‘DHARA, an Ode to Indian Knowledge System’ as a part of the Science Week Vigyan Sarvatra Pujyate.

What is the purpose of DHARA?

DHARA comprises a series of lecture demonstrations by eminent scholars across the world to revisit our history and celebrate the achievements of India and the contribution of great scholars, mathematicians, scientists, and leaders to its heritage. 

The lectures commenced with ‘Mathematics in India’ which will focus on India’s contribution to Mathematics through the ages.

Contributions of Indian Mathematicians

Sulbasutras(∼ 800 BCE): It is the oldest extant text. It explicitly states and makes use of the so-called Pythagorean theorem, besides giving various interesting approximations to surds. 

Pingala’s Chandassastra (∼ 3rd cent. BCE): It lays foundations for various combinatorial techniques. (Knowledge of combinatorics is necessary to build a solid command of statistics).

Aryabhata (c. 499 CE): He described algorithms for extracting square root and cube root based on the decimal place-value system. He also presented the differential equation of the sine function in its finite-difference form and a method for solving the linear indeterminate equation. 

Brahmagupta(c. 628): He discussed the arithmetic operations with zero. He also introduced the profound ‘bhavana’ law of composition for solving quadratic indeterminate equations. 

Madhava (c. 1340–1420): He pioneered the Kerala School of astronomy and mathematics. He also discovered the infinite series for pi (π)—the so-called Gregory-Leibniz series)—and other trigonometric functions.

Source: This post is based on the article “Ministry of Culture organized the first event of the series Dhara – an Ode to Indian Knowledge System” published in PIB on 25th February 2022.