Aryabhata Biography 
Aryabhata was the first mathematician cum astrologer from the country India who lived during the period 476–550 CE. Aryabhatiya is his celebrated work, a summary of Hindu mathematics up to that time, which covers astronomy, spherical trigonometry, arithmetic, algebra and plane trigonometry. He completed this work in 499 CE when he was only 23 years old. Arya-siddhanta is his second contribution, and through his works he made wonderful contributions to the field of Indian astrology and mathematics. Aryabhata had an excellent understanding of the Keplerian Universe, a millenium before Kepler. Aryabhata gave an accurate approximation for pi and was an earliest mathematician who used algebra. He calculated the length of the year at 365 days 6 hours 12 minutes 30 seconds, though it differs slightly with present-day calculations. India's first satellite was named after the great Indian astronomer.
According to records he was born on 476 CE, at the end of Gupta era. He is the oldest mathematician and astrologer whose works are available to modern scholars. He is also known as Aryabhata I or Aryabhata the Elder to distinguish from a 10th-century Indian mathematician of the same name. He resided Kusumapura, near Patalipurta (old Patna), then the capital of the Gupta dynasty. But some scholars believe that he belongs to Kerala and his celebrated work, Aryabhatiya was written while at Kodungalloor – the cultural place now known to be the gateway of three religions to India (Christianity, Islam and Judaism).
Though Aryabhatiya is the only survived book, it’s believed that he authored three works.he also wrote some free stanzas. He also introduced the versine into trigonometry and most surprisingly both Geometry and Trigonometry are etymologically derived from Sanskrit. His formulas for the areas of a triangle and a circle proved correct, while volumes of a sphere and a pyramid are wrong. Through his book Siddhanta, he pointed out that apparent rotation of the heavens was due to the axial rotation of earth. He explained the reasons of solar and lunar eclipses and also believed that moon and planets shine with sun’s reflected light.
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Updated: June 26, 2014
