xxii INTRODUCTION Therefore the number of years elapsed since the beginning of Kaliyuga at the time of writing the commentary -1986123730-1986120000 years =3730 years. The year when 3730 years of Kaliyuga had elapsed was the year 629 of the Christian era. Bhaskara I's commentary on the Aryabhafiya was, therefore, written in 629 A. D., i.e., exactly one year after Brahmagupta wrote his Br^kma-sphufa-siddkSnta. The MaKi'Bk&sharlya was written earlier and the Laghu-BKiskariya later than this date. The place of birth and activity of Bhaskara I is not definitely known. On the basis of circumstantial evidence supplied by his works I have shown in Part I that he had associations with the countries of Asmaka and Surastra. His commentary on the Aryabhafiya was probably written in the city of Valabhl in Surastra. It may be that Bhaskara I was born and educated in Asmaka and migrated to Valabhl where he wrote his commen- tary on the Aryabhafiya, or that he was a native of Valabhl and got his education in the Asmaka country. (For details, see Parti). Bhaskara I has a special predilection for calling Aryabhata I by the name Asmaka, his Aryabhafiya by the name A'smaka-tantra or Asmakha, and his followers by the epithet AsmaktyZh. Preference for these unusual names to the usual ones seems to suggest that either Bhaskara I belonged to the Asmaka country or that there was a school of astronomy in that country whose exponents where "followers of Aryabhata" and to which Bhaskara I himself belonged. As Datta has observed, 1 Bhaskara I was undoubtedly the most competent exponent of Aryabhata I's school of astronomy (the Asmaka school). (For details, see Part I). 1 B. Datta, "The Two Bhaskaras," Indian Historical Quarterly, Vol. VI, 1930, pp. 727-736.
