Lilavati of Bhaskaracarya

Lilavati has been used as a standard textbook for about 800 years. Its lucid, Scholarly and literary presentation has attracted several cultural areas and it was widely used and commented and translated into several languages of the world. In the Lilavati, Arithmetic is presented as an enjoyable playful activity. The name ‘Bhaskaracarya’ and ‘Lilavati’ are well-known. If a student displays outstanding talent in Mathematics, the school teacher lovingly calls the student "Second Bhaskaracarya". Aryabhata (b.476 AD) is credited for his pioneering work of extracting tantra sastra, (I.e. astronomy and mathematics) from vedas (generally known as the oldest embodiment of knowledge) to the level of common usage as he appropriately says in his Aryabhatiyam. In 1150 AD, Bhaskaracarya (b.1114 AD), renowned mathematician and astronomer of Vedic tradition compose Lilavati as the first part of this larger world called Siddhanta-Siromani, a comprehensive exposition of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, mensuration, number theory and related topics, Lilavati has been used as a standard textbook for about 800 years. Its lucid, Scholarly and literary presentation has attracted several cultural areas and it was widely used and commented and translated into several languages of the world. Bhaskaracarya himself never gave any derivations of his formulae. N.H. Phadke (1902-1973) worked hard to construct proofs of several mathematical methods and formulae given in original Lilavati and present work is an enlargement of his Marathi work and attempts a thorough mathematical explanation of definitions, formulae, short cuts and methodology as intend by Bhaskara. Stitches are followed by literal translations so that the reader can enjoy and appreciate the beauty of accurate and musical presentation in Lilavati. The book is useful to school going children, sophomores, teachers, scholars, historians and those working for the cause of mathematics.