In a time and place where people believed certain distant stars, called "asuras," possessed malevolent powers capable of inflicting harm on Earth, Aryabhata the Elder took the first steps towards separating scientific explication from folklore and superstition. His Aryabhatiya was the first major book on Hindu mathematics, which summarized knowledge of his predecessors. While covering many aspects of arithmetic, algebra, and numerical notation, the majority of The Aryabhatiya dealt with trigonometric tables and formulae for use in astronomy. Any astronomical observations Aryabhata made were most likely completely unaided. Although The Aryabhatiya contained errors, it was translated and reproduced as Zij al-Arjabharby the Arabs. One of Aryabhata's methods, a solution to the indeterminate quadratic xy = ax + by + c, was rediscovered by Leonhard Euler in the 18th century.

The City of Flowers

Aryabhata the Elder was born near what is now the city of Patna in India. His year...