Science
Aryabhata
Mathematician and astronomer
Also known as Āryabhaṭa · Aryabhata I
Later depiction · Image credit
Who they are
Aryabhata composed mathematical and astronomical verses collected in the Aryabhatiya. Its discussion of apparent stellar motion uses the comparison of a traveler in a moving boat seeing stationary objects move backward. The timeline uses this passage to examine an early Earth-rotation interpretation while retaining the surrounding text’s interpretive difficulties.
His work broadens the history of mathematical astronomy beyond the later European heliocentric debate.
Selected contributions
Selected works
Primary text · 499
The Āryabhaṭīya of Āryabhaṭa
Aryabhata’s verses combine mathematical procedures and astronomy, including a boat comparison for apparent stellar motion. Clark’s translation and notes expose both the Earth-rotation reading and interpretive difficulties in adjacent passages.
Original work dated 499; linked edition is Walter Eugene Clark’s 1930 English translation, University of Chicago Press.
Reading scope & citation
Reused prior inspected evidence: Downloaded full scan-derived OCR and inspected the specified translated verses and commentary. The Sanskrit manuscripts were not independently collated.
In the timeline
Biography sources & portrait credit
- The Āryabhaṭīya of Āryabhaṭa ↗University of Chicago Press; digitised edition at Internet Archive
Portrait credit
Sculptor uncredited; photograph by Cpjha13. CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Later depiction. Cropped to 4:5, resized to 320 × 400 and converted to WebP.
