Bhaskara

Bhaskara  (1114–1185), also known as Bhaskara II and Bhaskara Achārya ("Bhaskara the teacher"), was an Indian mathematician and an astronomer. He was born near Bijjada Bida which is in present day Bijapur district, Karnataka, India. Bhaskara was the head of an astronomical observatory at Ujjain, the leading mathematical center of ancient India. His predecessors in this post had included both the noted Indian mathematicians Brahmagupta and Varahamihira. He lived in the Sahyadri region.

Bhaskara and his works represent a significant contribution to mathematical and astronomical knowledge in the 12th century. He has been called the greatest mathematician of medieval India. His main work was the Siddhanta Siromani, Sanskrit for "Crown of treatises," is divided into four parts called Lilavati ,Bijaganita, Grahaganita and Goladhyaya. These four sections deal with arithmetic, algebra, mathematics of the planets, and spheres respectively.

Bhaskara's work on calculus predates Newton and Leibniz by half a millennium. He is particularly known in the discovery of the principles of differential calculus and its application to astronomical problems and computations. While Newton and Leibniz have been credited with differential and integral calculus, there is strong evidence to suggest that Bhaskara was a pioneer in some of the principles of differential calculus. He was perhaps the first to conceive the differential coefficient and differential calculus.