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140 JAIN STUDIES AND SCIENCE
(7) (8)
Mensuration (rasi) – measurement by grain heaps Inverse (chhava) - fractions
3. History -
Ancient mathematics had been popularly known as Pati-Ganita'. Various scholars have tried to find out the historical background of this peculiar word. According to them, this word is actually constituted of two words: (i) Pati - slate (board) and (ii) Gunita -mathematics. Hence it means that mathematics in which slate is needed to perform calculations. Due to the want of paper up to the end of the nineteenth century, slate was in use. Even now its ample use is found in villages. Scholars regard that this word has been originated from local dialect of northern India which was the offshoot of Sanskrit language. When the Sanskrit texts were translated into the Arabic. they called it Ilma-Hisaba-Al-takhta'. Takhta in Arabic language means a slate. They sometimes used another word - Hisaba-Al-guvara". as the slate was often replaced by the sand-floors.
The original Sanskrit words used to describe a 'slate for writing were - pulaku and patta; not puti. The word pati finds mention in Sanskrit literature from circa 5th century. Therefore, in the opinion of the author, the word pati-ganita should actually be referring to 'tabular form of maths when the decimal counting began in the form of one, two, three, and four ..... Some of the latter mathematicians have actually used the word "puti-gunitu" for mathematics of integers. This was meant to regard algebra as separate from the numerals.
The following are some mentionable texts of pati-ganit: 1. Vakshali Manuscript (c. 300 A.D.) 2. Slate mathematics of Shri Dhar and Trisauka (c. 750 A.D.)
3. Ganita Sar-Sangraha (c. 850 A.D.) 4.Ganita Tilaka (1039 A.D.) 5. Lilavati (1150 A.D.) 6. Ganita Kaumudi (1356 A.D.) and
7. Pati-sar written by Munisvara (c. 1658 A.D.)
Besides, Bhaskara-II had mentioned that Lalla had authored a separate text on pati-gunita.
These treatises comprise the above mentioned twenty operators and
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