Madhava of Sangamagrama: Encyclopedia II - Madhava of Sangamagrama - Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics

Madhava of Sangamagrama - Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics

Main article: Kerala school

Madhava founded the Kerala school, which included as its prominent members Parameswara, Neelakanta Somayaji, Jyeshtadeva, Achyuta Pisharati, Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri and Achyuta Panikkar. It flourished between the 13th and 16th centuries and has its intellectual roots with Aryabhatta who lived in the 5th century. The lineage continues down to modern times but the original research seems to have ended with Narayana Bhattathiri. These astronomers, in attempting to solve problems, invented revolutionary ideas of calculus. They discovered the theory of infinite series, tests of convergence (attributed to Cauchy now), differentiation, term by term integration, iterative methods for solution of non-linear equations, and the theory that the area under a curve is its integral.

Jyestadeva consolidated the Kerala school's discoveries in the Yuktibhasa, the first calculus text of the world.

The Kerala school also contributed much to linguistics. The Ayurvedic and Poetic traditions of Kerala were founded by this school. The famous poem, Narayaneenam, was composed by Narayana Bhayttatiri.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki