Mathematical Treasure: Rangacarya's Translation of Ganita-sāra-sangraha of Mahāvīrācārya

The medieval Indian mathematician Mahāvīrā (or Mahāvīrācārya, Mahavira the Teacher, ca 800–870) prepared the Ganita-sāra-sangraha to update the work of Brahmagupta. The book’s nine chapters catalogue the mathematical knowledge of the time period and include processes and problems for various arithmetical operations, such as fractions, the Rule of Three, areas, excavations, and shadows. It is especially significant for indicating how adherents of the Jaina religon approached mathematics. This 1912 English translation was prepared over several years by M. Raṅgācārya (1861–1916), an Indian professor of philology who also served as Curator of the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library in Madras. American mathematics educator and book collector David Eugene Smith (1860–1944) supplied an introduction to the text and also wrote a review for the AMS.

The title page in English and the Sanskrit version of the table of contents:

The first page of the text in Sanskrit and in English:

Reference

Smith, David Eugene. 1913, March. Review of The Ganita-Sāra-Sangraha of Mahāvīrācārya by M. Rangācārya. Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 19:310–315.

A full digitization of the copy owned by the Central Secretariat Library of the Government of India in New Delhi is available in the Internet Archive.

Index to Mathematical Treasures