roadrunner
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2007
- Messages
- 5,696
- Reaction score
- 0
More Published books that clearly state the facts:
Elementary Number Theory with Applications
By Thomas Koshy
"Brahmagupta, the most prominent Indian Astronomer and Mathematician, was born in Bhillamala..."
Elementary Number Theory with ... - Google Book Search
This is an acceptable reference, your second one.
Comparative Librarianship: Essays in Honour of Professor D. N. Marshall
By D. N. Marshall, N. N. Gidwani
Published by Vikas Pub. House, 1973
Original from the University of California
Digitized 7 Dec 2006
245 pages
"...he was a native of Bhinmal in Northern Gujarat..."
Comparative Librarianship: Essays in ... - Google Book Search
This is not acceptable, because it says he was a native of Gujerat. I think even my references suggest he lived in Gujerat, but he was born in Multan.
You have to consider the translation of Al-Beruni's texts also. Another thing to consider is that Al-Beruni lived 5 centuries after Brahmagupta had lived, so his research would not have been so accurate as today's.
Proceedings - Indian History Congress
By Indian History Congress
Published by , 1995
Item notes: 1994
Original from the University of Michigan
Digitized 29 Aug 2008
"Alberuni, I, 1 53, says that "Bhillamala, between the town of MULTAN & Anhilwara
, 1 6 yojanas from the latter place", was the birth-place of Brahmagupta who .."
Proceedings - Indian History Congress - Google Book Search
brahmagupta bhillamala alberuni - Google Book Search
Ridiculous reference from the Indian History Congress of faked data.
That brings the grand total to 5 University sources, one Journal Paper, and 6 published works.
All the 6 published works identify his birthplace as Bhinmal.
You have 2 references.
I have explained each one in detail.
Your "university references" are not university references. They are holdings stored within universities of 1920s, non peer reviewed manuscripts that were published fictional press prints, that do not hold the same prestige as Harvard University professor's papers, Strasbourg University, Montreal University etc.
In Addition, here is a quote from Kim Plofker, Department of History of Mathematics
Brown University:
The _Brahmasphutasiddhanta_ mentions a ruler of a dynasty
whose capital was at Bhillamala in modern Rajasthan (and a ninth-century
commentator calls Brahmagupta "the teacher from Bhillamala"); I don't
understand the author's reference to Multan.
Historia Matematica Mailing List Archive: Re: [HM] The Zero Story: a question
He WORKED in Bhillamala. There is no contesting this from my side. The Multan bit comes in because he was BORN IN MULTAN, as per several sources, not least Montreal.
Clearly, if a professor of the History of Mathematics has no clue where the "Multan" reference came from, then its quite obvious that there ARE NO HISTORICAL SOURCES/DOCUMENTS for that claim.
The only historical sources about Brahmagupta are Brahmagupta's own work (which says it was written in Bhillamala), a ninth century commentator who calls him the "teacher from Bhillamala", Alberuni who refers to him as "Son of Jisnu, from Bhillamala between Multan and Anhilwara", and another source that describes him as the head of the observatory at Ujjain.
No it's not the only reference. Clearly there are more references OR Al Beruni's works are translated differently. Example, Al Beruni may have meant by native that he had been living in Bhillamala for so long that he was considered a native. There's many possibilities. More importantly, even Al Beruni mentions Multan. There would be no point in mentioning Multan when Multan would have been a separate kingdom to that of the Gujarras at the time. Of course if he were born in Multan, and then moved to work in Bhillamala this makes perfect sense for mentioning it.
I'll give you the above non academic source, and you had one credible one from before (though on medicinal mathematics).
Last edited: