Bhaskara 1 mathematician biography index

Indian mathematician and astronomer (600-680)

For others with the same name, see Bhaskara (disambiguation).

Bhāskara (c. 600 – c. 680) (commonly called Bhāskara I to avoid confusion with the 12th-century mathematicianBhāskara II) was a 7th-century Indian mathematician and astronomer who was the first to write numbers in the Hindu–Arabic decimal system with a circle for the zero, and who gave a unique and remarkable rational approximation of the sine function in his commentary on Aryabhata's work.^[3] This commentary, Āryabhaṭīyabhāṣya, written in 629, is among the oldest known prose works in Sanskrit on mathematics and astronomy.

He also wrote two astronomical works in the line of Aryabhata's school: the Mahābhāskarīya ("Great Book of Bhāskara") and the Laghubhāskarīya ("Small Book of Bhāskara").^[3][4]

On 7 June 1979, the Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Bhāskara I satellite, named in honour of t