Multiplying Integers: on the diverse practices of medieval Sanskrit authors

Agathe Keller (1) , Catherine Morice-Singh (1)

1 SPHERE (UMR_7219) - Sciences, Philosophie, Histoire

We examine the diverse ways Brahmagupta (628 CE), Mahāvīra (ca. 850), Śrīdhara (ca. 750-900) and their commentators understood how a multiplication could be executed. We describe a variety of algorithms, noting how commentators give us clues to how numbers are shaped for execution, how the procedure is displayed on a working surface, etc. We attempt to evaluate if resources of the decimal place-value notation are used. The current historiography of elementary operations in Sanskrit sources is also revised along the way.

Mots clés: Multiplication; Practices of operations; Decimal place value notation; Brahmagupta; Mahāvīra; Śrīdhara

Domaines: Histoire

Agathe Keller, Catherine Morice-Singh. Multiplying Integers: on the diverse practices of medieval Sanskrit authors. 2014. ⟨halshs-01006135v1⟩