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. We note 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 in which ways resources of the decimal place value notation were 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. Chemla, Karine; Keller, Agathe et Proust, Christine. Cultures of computation and quantification in the ancient world, 6, Springer WSAWM; Springer International Publishing, pp.495-552, 2022, Why the Sciences of the Ancient World Matter, ⟨10.1007/978-3-030-98361-1_9⟩. ⟨halshs-01006135v2⟩