 |
||
|
||
|
||
There has been a renewed interest in Vedic Mathematics or Sixteen Simple Mathematical Formulae from the Vedas by Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Shri Bharati Krishna Tirthaji Maharaja of Govardhan Peeth Mutt, Puri, originally published by Banaras Hindu University in 1965. The book offers answers to all mathematical problems-including arithmetic, algebra, geometry-in 16 sutras or aphorisms.
One of the sutras or aphorisms given by the Sankaracharya in his book is Nikhilam Navatha, Charamam Dasatha (All from 9, last from 10) to subtract any number from a power of 10. The idea is to subtract every digit from 9 and the last from 10.
That is, 10,000-2689 would mean (9-2) (9-6) (9-8) (10-9) = 7311.
If the same number is to be subtracted from 100,000 add one zero to the left of 2689 and use the same technique.
That is, (9-0) (9-2) (9-6) (9-8) (10-9) = 97311
Another sutra, Yavadunam Thevadunikritiya, Vargam Cha Yojaet, is to find the square of numbers.
To find the square of 8 you have to subtract 2 from 8 for the first part of the answer; 2 is the difference of 8 from 10. The second part is the square of 2, i.e. 4. So the answer is 64.
Similarly, the first part of the square of 7 would be [7-(10-7)] 4. The second part is the square of (10-7) or the square of 3 which is 9. The answer here is 49.
The square of 93 is [93-(100-93)], 7x7 = 8649.
The square of those numbers which exceed the power of 10 like 107 is [(100+7)+7], 7x7 = 11449.
The rest of the sutras also are simple formulae to compute many mathematical problems which have earned many admirers not just in India but abroad as well.
But the book has been mired in controversy with some questioning the 'vedicity' of the sutras on the ground of the language and the level of mathematics it deals with. The Shankaracharya, a scholar in mathematics, had claimed that the sutras are from the parisistha (appendix) of the Atharvaveda.
A.K. Bag, who reviewed the book
in the Indian Journal of History of Science, said no scholar had been able
to trace this relationship. D.P. Chattopadhyay in his Science and Technology
in Ancient India shows it as a classic example of the 'wrong way of reading
the vedas'. He says the title is worthless, notwithstanding the mathematical
excellence of the book.
|
||
|
||
|
||