Bhāskara II Biography

Bhaskara II, also known as Bhaskara or as Bhaskaracharya, was a 12th century Indian mathematician. He was also a renowned astronomer who accurately defined many astronomical quantities, including the length of the sidereal year. A brilliant mathematician, he made the significant discovery of the principles of differential calculus and its application to astronomical problems and computations centuries before European mathematicians like Newton and Leibniz made similar discoveries. It is believed that Bhaskara II was the first to conceive the differential coefficient and differential calculus. The son of a mathematician and astronomer, he was trained by his father in the subjects. Following in his father’s footsteps the young man too became a renowned mathematician and astronomer and was considered the lineal successor of the noted Indian mathematician Brahmagupta as head of an astronomical observatory at Ujjain. Bhaskara II wrote the first work with full and systematic use of the decimal number system and also wrote extensively on other mathematical techniques and on his astronomical observations of planetary positions, conjunctions, eclipses, cosmography, and geography. In addition, he also filled many of the gaps in his predecessor Brahmagupta’s work. In recognition of his invaluable contributions to mathematics and astronomy, he has been called the greatest mathematician of medieval India.