Baudayana

The great Baudhayana was a vedic priest, architect and scientist who lived between 800 BC and 740 BC. He is credited with the Baudhayana Sutras also known as the Sulbha Sutras. It is perhaps one of the oldest surviving texts of our dharma and Baudhayana is considered the first Bharatiya mathematician. His important mathematical contributions include a formulation of the Pythogaras theorem almost 1000 years before Pythogaras and calculations of the value of ‘pi’ amongst others.

 

It is believed that Baudhayana’s interest in mathematics stemmed from his Dharmic duties. The altar in temples is constructed in a precise manner to channelise energies to the divine whom we house in these altars. Hence there was a need for understanding how the interplay of shapes and areas work in order to create the required structures in a precise way. 

 

The Baudhayana sutras cover dharma, daily rituals and mathematics for the common citizen and consist of six Sanskrit texts.

• Srautasutra which is about performing Vedic rituals and sacrifices.
• Dharmasutra which is the book of law. The sutras talk about social classes, the role of the king, marriage, penances, inheritance, women, householder, orders of life, and ancestral offerings.
• Karmantasutra, Dwaidhasutra, and Grihyasutras talk about the duties of all citizens, domestic life, etc.
• Sulbha Sutra contains mathematical formulae used for practical applications like the construction of altars in temples.

Some of the most well-known mathematical discoveries in the Sulbha Sutras include a statement of what is now known as the Pythagoras theorem. Baudhayana simplified the process of learning by capturing the mathematical result in a simple shloka. The Baudhanya theorem as stated by him is:

 

दीर्घचतुरश्रस्याक्ष्णया रज्जु: पार्श्र्वमानी तिर्यग् मानी च यत् पृथग् भूते कुरूतस्तदुभयं करोति ॥

 

Baudhayana used a rope as an example in the above shloka/verse, which can be translated as:

 

The areas produced separately by the length and the breadth of a rectangle together equal the areas produced by the diagonal. It is inferred that this result applies to a rectangle, square and right-angled triangle.

 

 

Baudhayana is considered one of the first to discover the value of ‘pi’ and this finds mention in the Sulbha sutras. According to his premise, the approximate value of pi is 3.3. Several values of π occur in Baudhayana's Sulbasutra. Baudhayana used different approximations for constructing circular shapes in the altar. Most of these values are very close to what is considered to be the value of pi today. Aryabhatta, another great Indian mathematician, worked out the accurate value of π as 3.1416 in 499AD.

 

Other significant mathematical methods mentioned in the sulabha shastras including finding the square root of 2 and circling a square.