Can a complex mathematic puzzle be couched in an evocative piece of poetry, describing bees around a lotus? Indian-origin math whiz Majul Bhargava, who was the chief guest at the launch of the Murty Classical Library of India series, said that much of ancient Indian mathematical treatises came as verses.
“Bhaskara’s ‘Beeja Ganita’ has lots of beautiful poetry,” he said, adding that he hoped to see a time when the MCLI series would also include classical non-literary texts. He said that 2,000-year-old texts, which deal with the mathematics of music, were amazing for their precision. “They tell us about the music as we practice today,” he said. Prof. Bhargava said that our ancient texts are not only about human thinking thousands of years ago, but also about “how it morphed into the culture it is today.” He emphasised that much debate about what is contained or not in ancient Indian texts stems from not having access to them.
