Bharat is famous for the subject of mathematics from ancient times. Earlier this was treated as part of astronomy. A batch of 18 sages like Parasara, Vasistha and Chyana made significant contributions to this subject. While their times could not be established precisely, summaries of their works were written by subsequent astronomers like Varahamihira. The list of great mathematicianss of medieval periods include Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Bhaskarcharya-1, Bhaskaracharya– 2, and several others.
In 1890’s, Sankara Balakrishna Deekshit of Mumbai compiled the history of Indian Astronomy. Originally it was written in Marathi language, and got awards of Rs.1450/-in those days,which is equivalent to tonnes of gold in today’s context. It was translated into English in 1960’s, which is taken as the source for translation into Telugu. Deekshit presented biographical sketch of more than 100 outstanding mathematicians of this country. He also highliguted salient points of their works.
The telugu translation is running into two volumes. The first volume contains the concepts of time and the nomenclature, references in Vedas, Vedangas, smritis, etc., brief details of old treatises, contributions of astronomers like Aryabhata-1, Varahamihira etc, and several others upto 19th century.
The second volume contains details of Ganita skandha, different eras, eclipses,ayanamsa, sringonnati etc, Jataka skandha and some annexures on special topics like earth quakes.
