Bhaskara II

Bhāskara II ([bʰɑːskərə]; c. 1114–1185), commonly known as Bhāskarāchārya (lit. 'Bhāskara the teacher'), was an Indian polymath, mathematician, and astronomer whose works represent the zenith of the classical Siddhānta school of Jyotiṣa (astronomy and applied mathematics—one of the six Vedāngas or auxiliary disciplines of Vedic scholarship). From verses in his main work, Siddhānta Śiromaṇi, it can be inferred that he was born in 1114 in Vijjadavida (Vijjalavida) and living in the Satamala mountain ranges of Western Ghats, believed to be the town of Patana in Chalisgaon, located in present-day Khandesh region of Maharashtra by scholars. In a temple in Maharashtra, an inscription, supposedly created by his grandson Changadeva, lists Bhaskaracharya's ancestral lineage for several generations before him as well as two generations after him.Henry Colebrooke who was the first European to translate (1817) Bhaskaracharya's mathematical classics refers to the family as Maharashtrian Brahmins residing on the banks of the Godavari.

Born in a Hindu Deshastha Brahmin family lineage of scholars, mathematicians and astronomers, Bhāskara II was the head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjain, the historic reference meridian (madhyarekhā) and premier institutional center of mathematical astronomy in ancient India. Bhāskara 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, Siddhānta-Śiromaṇi (Sanskrit for "Crown of Treatises"), is divided into four parts called Līlāvatī, Bījagaṇita, Grahagaṇita and Golādhyāya, which are also sometimes considered four independent works. These four sections deal with arithmetic, algebra, mathematics of the planets, and spheres respectively. He also wrote another treatise named Karaṇā Kautūhala.