that he was both a 1036 saka in Vijiadabida. The name of his father was Mahesvaropadhyaya. He was a pious Vaishnava and well-versed in the performance of Vaidic and Smarta rites. His life and opinions were ideally simple and full of nobility. Indeed it is difficult for people of our intelligence to estimate them properly. We need hardly speak anything about the keenness and many-sidedness of his intellect. The reader will find the same amply exhibited in his works. The following sloka alone will show how great a scholar he was—
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अष्टौ व्याकरणानि पट् च भिपजां व्याचष्ट ता: संहिताः |
It is a most remarkable point in Bhaskaracharya that new Mathematics ( Differential Calculus ) to which Leibnitz and Newton claimed to have given birth had already been known to him nearly 300 years earlier.
The value of ÷, the summation of the Arithmetical and Geometrical progressions, the method devised for finding out combinations and permutations-all these testify to the great originality and genius of the author.
Bhaskaracharya wrote at the age of 36 in 1072 saka his Siddhanta Siromani of which the present work forms a chapter. I am of opinion that the Lilavati was written after the text of Ganitadhyaya. There is much difference of opinion with regard to the name of the present work. Some are of opinion that he named the work after his dear daughter in order to perpetuate her memory while others hold that it was called after the name of his late wife with a view to show his love for her. Whatever be the history of the origin of the name,
