Mahaviracharya: 9th Century Mathematician



The Jains have always been very interested in mathematics. One distinguished Jain mathematician monk was Mahaviracharya who wrote "Ganita-sara-samgraha" in 850 AD during the reign of the great Rashtrakuta king Amoghavarsha. Amoghavarsha had become a Jain monk in the later part of his life. His capital was in Manyakheta in modern Karnataka.

Some of the interesting things in Ganita-sara-samgraha are:

No personal information about Mahaviracharya is available.

This is based on an article recently published in Vishva Viveka (a Hindi Quarterly published from New Orleans, LA, USA) by Prof. S.C. Agrawal and Dr. Anupam Jain. As you will recall, Dr. Anupam Jain is the editor of a Jain research journal "Arhata Vachan".

There is an annotated Hindi translation on Ganita-Sara-Samgraha by Prof. L.C. Jain.

Yashwant K. Malaiya