Bhāskara-prabhā. Selected papers presented at Bhāskara 900, an international conference to commemorate the 900th birth anniversary of Bhāskarācārya, Thane, India, September, 19--21, 2014 (Q1722777)

The book under review is a collection of scholarly papers presented at the conference held to commemorate the 900th birth anniversary of Bhāskarācārya, one of the greatest mathematicians of India. The volume is divided into seven parts to reflect the various areas that modern scholarship on Bhāskara has focused on. At the beginning of every part, there is an invocatory verse from the appropriate work of Bhāskara. From the many papers presented at the conference, twenty have been highlighted in this volume. In the introduction, the works of Bhāskara are put forth in brief. There is an interesting discussion about whether the \textit{Līlāvatī} and the \textit{Bījagaṇita} form parts of the magnum opus \textit{Siddhāntaśiromaṇi} or should be considered as independent texts. Historians are fortunate while considering the lineage and information concerning the life of Bhāskara. There are two inscriptions pertaining to the life and ancestry of this mathematician. The first essay ``Caṅgadeva's inscription of 1207'' includes the text and translation of one of these inscriptions. There are photographs from recent visits to these sites and also oral testimony from local temple officials. The authors of works on \textit{Jyotiḥśāstra} generally mention the year of their birth or epochs that are close to their own times. Bhāskara too states in his \textit{Siddhāntaśiromaṇi} that he was born in Saka 1036 (1114 CE). Thus, Bhāskara is not a mythical figure but a historical personage whose date and works are firmly established. Even so legends grew around him. The most persistent legend about him relates that he composed the \textit{Līlāvatī} to console his widowed or unmarried daughter. The legend is the topic of S. R. Sarma's paper ``The legend of \textit{Līlāvatī}''. Sarma systematically evaluates the evidence of a Persian translation and reveals that the legend has undoubtedly no substance and was made up to explain the rather strange title of the text. The poetic genius of Bhāskara is well-known and this explains the enduring appeal of his works. In his contribution ``The poetical face of the mathematical and astronomical works of Bhāskarācārya'', Pierre-Sylvan Filliozat shows how Bhāskara combines mathematical and astronomical knowledge with poetic skills. The highest \textit{dhvani} is to create a state of \textit{rasa} in the reader/audience. By describing the various poetic embellishments employed by Bhāskara, Filliozat shows how successful he was in bringing a fusion between science and poetry, eliciting delight in the reader. In the second part, the first essay ``The \textit{līlā} of the \textit{Līlāvatī}'' by K. Ramasubramanian, K. Mahesh and Aditya Kolachana highlights the technical and literary features of many of the verses in the text. The essay explores the masterful way Bhāskara balances brevity and clarity and the variety of metres and \textit{alaṅkāras} employed by him to enhance the beauty of the text. We come to know that as many as 23 metres have been used in the \textit{Līlāvatī}. Numerous \textit{sabdālaṅkāras} and \textit{arthālaṅkāras} have been identified. True to his promise Bhāskara has composed a work that is endowed with \textit{lālitya-lélāvatī} (playful elegance) and \textit{caturaprītiprada} (delight to the experts). One erudite commentary of the \textit{Līlāvatī} is Gaṇeśa Daivajña's \textit{Buddhivilāsinī}, well-known for its \textit{upapattis}. In her contribution ``Gaṇeśa Daivajña's \textit{upapattis} for some rules of the \textit{Līlāvatī}'', Ramakalyani selects some rules whose \textit{upapattis} follow some common themes such as logical or verbal explanation, algebraic proof, demonstration or geometrical proofs. For each of these, a suitable example has been taken, accompanied by the respective excerpt from \textit{Līlāvatī} and the commentary of Gaṇeśa Daivajña. The \textit{Līlāvatī} was extremely popular and many copies and commentaries were made in languages other than Devanagari. In their paper ``Two Malayalam commentaries on the \textit{Līlāvatī}'', N. K. Sundaresan and P. M. Vrinda discuss about two commentaries which they call \textit{Yogāśraya} and \textit{Abhipreta}. These are from a collection of manuscripts scattered over three libraries in Kerala, having no information about the name of the work or its author. The names \textit{Yogāśraya} and \textit{Abhipreta} are the names occurring in the benedictory verse appearing in both texts. Often these Malayalam commentators offered alternative methods to those given in the text. One such innovative method for finding the square root and the cube root of numbers is given. The authors point out one instance, where the \textit{Abhipreta} gives the correct reading different from the available edition. One particular topic in the \textit{Līlāvatī} which enjoyed considerable attention was concerning the areas of triangles and quadrilaterals. Brahmagupta has given the formula for the area of a quadrilateral not specifying that it was cyclic. In his paper ``Mensuration of quadrilaterals in the \textit{Līlāvatī}'', S. G. Dani explores the various rules given by Brahmagupta, Mahavira, Sripati and Sridhara and others who came before Bhāskara. He then examines Bhāskara's treatment of the verse in his text as well his auto-commentary. It is not uncommon to find mathematicians of ancient India introducing new rules to solve old problems in addition to new topics. One such topic was introduced by Bhāskara in his \textit{Līlāvatī}. In his paper ``\textit{Aṅkapāśa} in the \textit{Līlāvatī}'', Takanori Kusuba discusses permutations of digits not found in works prior to Bhāskara. Four rules are detailed here with examples along with commentaries by Bhāskara himself, the \textit{Buddhivilāsini} by Gaṇeśa and the \textit{Kriyākarmakarī} by Nārāyaṇa. In the next part on the algebra text of Bhāskara named \textit{Bījagaṇita}, the first contribution is ``The \textit{Bījagaṇita} of Bhāskarācārya''. The author Sita Sundar Ram gives an overview of the work highlighting the mathematical innovations. The renowned \textit{cakravāla} method firmly established by Bhāskara receives special mentioning. Interesting is that Fermat worked on the same problem, solved by Bhāskara, five hundred years earlier. The paper thus brings to light a variety of topics handled by Bhāskara in this genre. Considerable attention is given by Bhāskara to the six operations with surds. In his paper entitled ``A critical study of algorithms in the \textit{Karaṇīṣaḍvidham}'', Shriram M. Chauthaiwale examines and analyzes these rules pertaining to surds. There are 22 verses for which he gives a translation along with the algorithms they contain. According to the author, the concept of \textit{yogaja karaṇi} is unique to Bhāskara. He is also the first scholar to discuss the conditions and limitations for the correct extraction of the square roots of surd expressions. The fourth part is devoted to the \textit{Siddhāntaśiromaṇi: Ganitādhyāya}. The first lecture in this part is ``\textit{Grahagaṇitādhyāya} of Bhāskarācārya's \textit{Siddhāntaśiromaṇi}'' of M. S. Sriram. The author chooses various key results concerning mean and true planetary motion, locating direction and time. To illustrate the rules, Sriram gives the relevant passages from Bhāskara's \textit{Vāsanā}, their translations and detailed technical analyses using modern notation. The precise diagrams add to a better understanding of the text. A notable feature of the Indian calendar was the practice of omitting a lunar month (\textit{kṣayamāsa}) to synchronise with the solar phenomenon. Michio Yano studies this in his paper ``Bhāskarācārya and \textit{kṣayamāsa}''. Bhāskara's rules and parameters are carefully examined. To check the frequency of the omitted months given in earlier works, Yano makes a comparison with his own \textit{pañcāṅga} program. That there was a \textit{kṣayamāsa} in the year 1052 was theoretically obtained by Bhāskara but it is not noticed by either Sripati or al-Biruni. Thus, Yano comes to the conclusion that Bhāskara was the first astronomer to discuss the topic in Sanskrit. In a short appendix, the author has added the verses about the \textit{kṣayamāsa} appearing in the \textit{Garuḍapurāṇa} and expressed his desire to get hold of more ritual texts dealing with a \textit{kṣayamāsa}. The next part covering the \textit{Golādhyāya} consists of four essays. The first one, entitled ``The \textit{Vāsanābhāṣyas} of Bhāskarācārya'', is a contribution of M. D. Srinivas. Besides the detailed \textit{Vāsanā} or auto-commentary on the \textit{Siddhāntaśiromaṇi}, Bhāskara has provided short explanatory notes for the \textit{Līlāvatī} and the \textit{Bījagaṇita} also. These are covered as well in the paper. The author compares Bhāskara as a commentator with other commentators offering lucid English translations for long passages in Sanskrit. Among the topics covered are the precession of the equinoxes, the latitude of the interior planets and others. Bhāskara allocated an entire chapter to trigonometry realizing it to be indispensible to astronomy. Clemency Montelle in her contribution ``The production of sines: Bhāskarācārya's \textit{Jyotpatti}'' examines the chapter of 25 verses in detail. She analyzes the mathematical relations included in the chapter for determining the various sine values. Her speculation as to why Bhāskara provided multiple rules when few would suffice, is genuine. She provides her own reasons. Bhāskara's exposition of the sine rules is a display of technical brilliance and practical considerations wherein the reader can create his own sine tables. Various recensions of the \textit{Siddhāntaśiromaṇi} have been included in this chapter at various places in the text. This is a significant feature of the text. Bhāskara is the first Indian astronomer who mentioned clearly the addition and subtraction formula for the sine and the cosine. In his paper ``An application for the addition and subtraction formula for the sine in Indian astronomy'', Setsuro Ikeyama examines the rule and its justification. Bhāskara himself did not give any rationale but later astronomers explained and utilized the formula. The application of the formula by the renowned Kerala astronomer Mādhava is discussed by another astronomer Nīlakaṇṭha in his \textit{Āryabhaṭīya Bhāṣya}. Both of them derive the rule in several different ways and link it to astronomical phenomena using plane geometry. In his contribution ``Astronomical instruments in Bhāskarācārya's \textit{Siddhāntaśiromaṇi}'', S. R. Sarma disagrees with S. B. Dixit's comment that Bhāskara used his extraordinary talents in formulating mathematical rationales but did not give due importance to advancing the techniques of observational astronomy. Bhāskara has devoted an entire chapter to the description of several instruments. But what is remarkable is that one misses the wonderful confidence with which he has dealt with other topics and notices instead the ambivalence between what is practical and what is speculative. Sarma has done a thorough study of the instruments mentioned in the \textit{Yantrādhyāya}. There are beautiful pictures of the instruments accompanying the legends. He thus assures Bhāskara's place in the tradition of describing observational instruments. The next part consists of only one paper, namely ``Bhojarājā and Bhāskara: precursors of \textit{Karaṇakutūhala} algebraic approximation formulas in the \textit{Rājamṛgāṅka}'' by Kim Plofker. Bhāskara has provided several algebraic approximations in the \textit{tripraśna} problems in ancient Indian astronomy. Plofker compares the \textit{Rājamṛgāṅka} of Bhoja with Bhāskara's \textit{Karaṇakutūhala}. In the end, she poses two very pertinent questions as to how the approximation formulas were invented and refined by both authors and whether the earlier \textit{Rājamṛgāṅka} had any influence on the later \textit{Karaṇakutūhala}. Bhāskara's \textit{Līlāvatī} continues to capture modern audience even today, by its charm and clarity. In his contribution, ``Implications of Bhāskarācārya's \textit{Līlāvatī} to the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics'', Hari Prasad Koirala highlights several ways in which the \textit{Līlāvatī} can be used to address these core state standards. These can be in arithmetic, algebra, geometry and mensuration. What is remarkable about the \textit{Līlāvatī} is the fact that it teaches mathematical rules and examples using beautiful verses that combine mathematics with nature, business, art and so on. The author therefore avers that the \textit{Līlāvatī} has the potential to help students to achieve some of the mathematical practices as outlined in the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSSM). In addition to the various scholarly papers presented at the conference, special mention should be made of as many as sixty workshops on the \textit{Līlāvatī} and allied topics, conducted by Prof. Sudhakar Agarkar. It was the vision of Dr. Vijay Bedekar that the outreach project should instill a sense of pride of one of their celebrated mathematician-astronomer, Bhāskarācārya of the 12th century CE. The volume ends with a substantial bibliography, common to all sections. It is divided into primary sources, secondary sources, catalogues, dictionaries and manuscripts. The length testifies to the considerable amount of scholarship Bhāskara's works have inspired over the years. The editors are to be congratulated for their meticulous preparation of this volume. The \textit{Bhāskara-prabhā} with its various scholarly contributions will surely be a welcome and useful contribution to any library.