The Compendium of the Essence of Mathematics

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six stanzas there is a benediction wishing progressive prosperity to the rule of this king. The results of modern Indian epigraphical research show that this king Amōghavarṣa Nṛpatuṅga a Rastrakuta monarch reigned from A.D. 814 or 815 to A.D. 877 or 878.* Since it appears probable that the author of the Gaṇita-sāra-saṅgraha Compendium of the Essence of Mathematics was in some way attached to the court of this Rāstṛakūta a prominent Indian dynasty king Amōghavarṣa Nṛpatuṅga, we may consider the work to belong to the middle of the ninth century of the Christian era. It is now generally accepted that, among well-known early Indian mathematicians Āryabhaṭa lived in the fifth, Varāhamihira in the sixth, Brahmagupta in the seventh and Bhāskarācārya in the twelfth century of the Christian era; and chronologically, therefore, Mahāvīrācārya comes between Brahmagupta and Bhāskarācārya. This in itself is a point of historical noteworthiness; and the further fact that the author of the Gaṇita-sāra-saṅgraha belonged to the Kanarese speaking portion of South India in his days and was a Jaina in religion is calculated to give an additional importance to the historical value of his work. Like the other mathematicians mentioned above, Mahāvīrācārya was not primarily an astronomer, although he knew well and has himself remarked about the usefulness of mathematics for the study of astronomy. The study of mathematics seems to have been popular among Jaina scholars; it forms, in fact, one of their four anuyōgas auxiliary religious texts or auxiliary sciences indirectly serviceable for the attainment of the salvation of soul-liberation known as mōkṣa spiritual liberation.

A comparison of the Gaṇita-sāra-saṅgraha with the corresponding portions in the Brahmasphuṭa-siddhānta Corrected Brahma-system of astronomy of

* See Nilgund Inscription stone inscription of the time of Amōghavarṣa I, A.D. 866; edited by J. F. Fleet, Ph.D., C.I.E., in Epigraphia Indica Journal of Indian inscriptions, vol. VI, pp. 98-108.