Born in India, Aryabhata is considered to be one of the most brilliant original thinkers on mathematics and astronomy, making computations and explaining the nature of solar system some 1000 years before Nicolas Copernicus suggested the heliocentric system.
Aryabhata played a role in the development of the modern current number system and made contribution number theory which has become universal today.
Aryabhata wrote two works: the Aryabhatiya in 499 and another treatise, Arya-Siddhanta which has been lost. He wrote Aryabhatiya when he was 23 years old after completing his studies at the University of Nalanda.
His Aryabhatiya work is fairly advanced. It apparently was preceded by many generation of mathematical research. It has relevance even today.
The Arya-Siddhanta, a lost work on astronomical computations contained the description of several astronomical instruments, the gnomon, a shadow instrument possibly an angle measuring device, semi circle and circle shaped device etc.
Aryabhata was the first to deduce that the earth its round and that it rotate on its own axis causing day and night. He also declared that the moon is dark and shines only because of sunlight.
In measuring time, Aryabhata determined that the length of a year is 365 days, six hours, 12 minutes, 30 seconds, an extremely close calculation to the modern standard of 365 days, six hours.
Aryabhata I (476–550 CE)
