Narayana Pandita (mathematician)

Narayaṇa Paṇḍita (Sanskrit: नारायण पण्डित) (1325–1400) was a major mathematician of India. Plofker writes that his texts were the most significant Sanskrit mathematics treatises after those of Bhaskara II, other than the Kerala school.[1]:52 He wrote the Ganita Kaumudi (lit "Moonlight of mathematics"[2]) in 1356[2] about mathematical operations. The work anticipated many developments in combinatorics. About his life, the most that is known is that:[1]

His father’s name was Nṛsiṃha or Narasiṃha, and the distribution of the manuscripts of his works suggests that he may have lived and worked in the northern half of India.

This article is about Indian mathematician Narayana Pandita. For Narayana Pandita, the writer of the book Hitopadesh, see Narayan Pandit.

Narayana Pandit had written two works, an arithmetical treatise called Ganita Kaumudi and an algebraic treatise called Bijaganita Vatamsa. Narayanan is also thought to be the author of an elaborate commentary of Bhaskara II's Lilavati, titled Karmapradipika (or Karma-Paddhati).[3] Although the Karmapradipika contains little original work, it contains seven different methods for squaring numbers, a contribution that is wholly original to the author, as well as contributions to algebra and magic squares.[3]

Narayana's other major works contain a variety of mathematical developments, including a rule to calculate approximate values of square roots, investigations into the second order indeterminate equation nq2 + 1 = p2 (Pell's equation), solutions of indeterminate higher-order equations, mathematical operations with zero, several geometrical rules, methods of integer factorization, and a discussion of magic squares and similar figures.[3] Evidence also exists that Narayana made minor contributions to the ideas of differential calculus found in Bhaskara II's work. Narayana has also made contributions to the topic of cyclic quadrilaterals.[4] Narayana is also credited with developing a method for systematic generation of all permutations of a given sequence.

Narayana's cows is an integer sequence which Narayana described as the number of cows present each year, starting from one cow in the first year, where every cow has one baby cow each year starting in its fourth year of life. The first few terms of the sequence are as follows: 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 13, 19, … Narayana's cows is sequence A000930 in OEIS. The ratio of consecutive terms approaches the supergolden ratio.

References
  1. Kim Plofker (2009), Mathematics in India: 500 BCE–1800 CE, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-12067-6
  2. Kusuba, Takanori (2004), "Indian Rules for the Decomposition of Fractions", in Charles Burnett; Jan P. Hogendijk; Kim Plofker; et al. (eds.), Studies in the History of the Exact Sciences in Honour of David Pingree, Brill, p. 497, ISBN 9004132023, ISSN 0169-8729
  3. J. J. O'Connor and E. F. Robertson (2000). Narayana Archived 2008-01-24 at the Wayback Machine, MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
  4. Ian G. Pearce (2002). Mathematicians of Kerala Archived 2008-12-19 at the Wayback Machine. MacTutor History of Mathematics archive. University of St Andrews.


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