GENERAL ARTICLE

Brahmagupta, Mathematician Par Excellence

C R Pranesachar

Brahmagupta holds a unique position in the history of Ancient Indian Mathematics. He contributed such elegant results to Geometry and
Number Theory that today's mathematicians still
marvel at their originality. His theorems leading
to the calculation of the circumradius of a triangle and the lengths of the diagonals of a cyclic
quadrilateral, construction of a rational cyclic
quadrilateral and integer solutions to a single second degree equation are certainly the hallmarks
of a genius.

C R Pranesachar is
involved in training Indian
teams for the International
Mathematical Olympiads.
He also takes interest in
solving problems for the

After the Greeks' ascendancy to supremacy in mathematics (especially geometry) during the period 7th century BC to 2nd century AD, there was a sudden lull in
mathematical and scientic activity for the next millennium until the Renaissance in Europe. But mathematics
and astronomy ourished in the Asian continent particularly in India and the Arab world. There was a continuous exchange of information between the two regions
and later between Europe and the Arab world. The decimal representation of positive integers along with zero,
a unique contribution of the Indian mind, travelled eventually to the West, although there was some resistance
and reluctance to accept it at the beginning.
Brahmagupta, a most accomplished mathematician, lived during this medieval period and was responsible for
creating good mathematics in the form of geometrical
theorems and number-theoretic results. This is besides
his contribution to astronomy.

American Mathematical
Monthly and Crux
Mathematicorum.

Keywords
Brahmasphutasiddhanta, zero
as a digit, Pythagorean triples,

He was born in a village called Bhillamala in North West

Rajastan in the year 598 AD and wrote his rst book
Brahmasphutasiddhanta (the Opening of the Universe)

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rational triangles, rational cyclic

quadrilaterals, second degree
integer equations.

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GENERAL ARTICLE

As the sun eclipses

the stars by his
brilliance, so
does the man of
knowledge eclipse
the fame of others in
assemblies
of people if he
proposes Algebraic
problems, and still
more if he
solves them.
Brahmagupta

in the year 628 AD. He wrote a second book Khandakhadyaka later. The rst book contains 1008 slokas
(verses) in 25 chapters and deals with arithmetic, algebra, geometry and number theory. (See Box 1 for some
slokas.) He was the rst to introduce zero as a digit.
This was translated into Arabic with the title Sindhind.
The second book has 194 slokas and deals with astronomical calculations in 9 chapters.
He was certainly a mathematician of preeminence for his
times, but he also had the habit of criticising his predecessors sharply for some of their faults and omissions.
There is a sequel to his second book which deals with
some corrections of his earlier work. He was the head of
Ujjain observatory. He passed away in the year 668 AD.
Brahmagupta's Works
1. Brahmagupta gave a general formula for the socalled Pythagorean triples, namely, (2mn; m2
n2 ; m2 + n2 ). This was known to others also.
2. (a) Given a side a of a right-angled triangle other
than the hypotenuse, a formula was given for the
sides of the triangle:

2
1 a2
1 a
a;
m ;
+m :
2 m
2 m
(b) Given the hypotenuse c, of a right-angled tri(m2 n2 )c
angle, the sides are given by c; m2mnc
.
2 +n2 ;
m 2 +n2
These result in rational right triangles.
3. Given a rational altitudex of a triangle, if the
2
2
sides are given by a = 12 xp + xq p q ; b =

1 x2
1 x2
+
p
;
c
=
+
q
, then we have a sca2
p
2
q
lene triangle with rational sides, rational area and
rational altitudes (and rational circumradius).

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GENERAL ARTICLE

Box 1. Slokas from Brahmasphutasiddhanta

(BrSpSi XII.38) This sloka describes the method of obtaining a rational cyclic
quadrilateral using two nonsimilar rational right triangles. (This seems to be
slightly dierent from the method described below.)

(BrSpSi XVIII.64) This sloka describes the equation Nx2 c2 = y2 .

(BrSpSi XVIII.67) This sloka describes the method of transforming the equa 2
2
2

2
tion N 2 + 4 = 2 into N
+
1
=
+
N
.
2
4
4

(BrSpSi XVIII.68) This sloka gives the transformation of N

2
2

2
+
N
.
4
4

2
2

+1 =

(BrSpSi XVIII.3-5) These slokas describe the method of obtaining a (general)

solution of the rst degree indeterminate equation ax + by = c.

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GENERAL ARTICLE

Brahmagupta gave
a simple method to
construct cyclic
quadrilaterals with
integer sides,
integer diagonals
and integer area.

4. The product of any two sides of a triangle is equal

to the product of its circumdiameter and altitude
drawn on the third side. This result which is easily
proved by similarity of triangles leads to a formula
for the circumradius of a triangle.
5. The area of a (cyclic) quadrilateral with sides a; b;
c;
pd and semiperimeter s is
(s a)(s b)(s c)(s d) .
(Brahmagupta did not mention the word cyclic).

6. The diagonals
with sides
q of a cyclic quadrilateral
q
and (ad+bc)(ac+bd)
.
a; b; c; d are (ab+cd)(ac+bd)
ad+bc
ab+cd

7. Integer cyclic quadrilaterals: Brahmagupta gave

a simple method to construct cyclic quadrilaterals with integer sides, integer diagonals and integer area. Take two dierent (nonsimilar) rightangled triangles with sides (a; b; c) and (x; y; z),
where c and z are the hypotenuses. Magnify the
rst by factors of x and y to get two triangles
O1A1 D1 and O2 C1 B1 and the second by factors
of a and b to get two more triangles O3 C2 D2 and
O4A2 B2 . Assemble these four right triangles so
that the O's, A's, B's, C's and D's coincide. Then
we have a cyclic quadrilateral ABCD with integer sides bz; cy; az; cx and integer diagonals ay +
bx; ax+by and integer area 12 (ax+by)(ay+bx).(See
Figure 1.)

Figure 1.

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GENERAL ARTICLE

This single marvellous result needs a little elaboration. The integer quadrilateral constructed by
Brahmagupta has perpendicular diagonals. Do
there exist integer cyclic quadrilaterals with nonorthogonal diagonals? In the 19th century AD,
Kummer, a German mathematician found all rational cyclic quadrilaterals. For this one needs to
start with two nonsimilar triangles, the sines and
cosines of whose angles are all rational (with one
angle of one triangle supplementary to one angle
of the other). Further the circumradius of such
quadrilaterals also turns out to be rational!
8. Brahmagupta gave a beautiful method to generate
innitely many integer solutions of the single equation Nx2 +1 = y2 , where N is a non-square integer,
starting with one trial solution. In fact, if (x; y) =
(x1; y1 ) and (x; y) = (x0 ; y0 ) are two solutions one
can easily see that (x; y) = (x1y 0 + x0y1 ; Nx1x01 +
y1y 0 ) is another solution. Hence if we have found
one solution of Nx2 + 1 = y2 , say (x; y) = (a; b),
then taking (x1; y1 ) = (a; b); (x0; y 0) = (a; b), one
gets a second solution (x2 ; y2) = (2ab; N a2 + b2).
Again by taking (x1 ; y1 ) = (a; b); (x0 ; y 0) = (x2 ; y2),
we get a third solution and so on. Thus the nth
solution (xn ; yn ) is generated by taking (x1 ; y1) =
(a; b) and (x0 ; y 0 ) = (xn1 ; yn1 ). It is believed that
Brahmagupta did not mention how the rst trial
solution can be found. For small values of N this
is easily guessed. For example, if N = 2, then
we may take (a; b) = (2; 3) as the rst solution of
2x2 + 1 = y2 and generate the solutions successively: (12; 17); (77; 90); (408; 577); ::: . If N = 3,
then we may take (a; b) = (1; 2) as a rst solution of 3x2 + 1 = y2 and get the other solutions:
(4; 7); (15; 26); (56; 97); :::.
Finding the rst solution is not easy in all cases;
for example, if N = 61, then x and y are really

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GENERAL ARTICLE

very large. This feat was achieved by Bhaskara II

of 12th century AD. In fact he found that (x; y) =
(223 153 980; 1766 319 049) was the smallest solution of 61x2 + 1 = y 2 . The method used to obtain
a solution is called `chakravala'.
These equations were later explored by European
mathematicians thoroughly and now there is a rich
and interesting theory created by number-theorists.
Continued fractions play a big role in this.
Brahmagupta's contribution to second-order interpolation for nding sine ratios accurately also deserves a mention. The readers may note that the
seeds of trigonometry were sown in India. Brahmagupta gave formulae for the sum of squares and
cubes of rst n natural numbers. He also solved
the general quadratic equation.
Bhaskara II aptly gave the title `Ganakachakra
Chudamani' to Brahmagupta. While mathematics was described as the jewel of all sciences, Brahmagupta accordingly deserves to be described as
`a brightest star in the galaxy of mathematicians'.

Address for Correspondence

C R Pranesachar
Mathematical Olympiad Cell
HBCSE, TIFR
at Department of Mathematics
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore 560012, India.
Email:
pran@math.iisc.ernet.in

252

Suggested Reading
[1]

S Balachandra Rao, Indian Mathematics and Astonomy, 3rd Edition,

2004, Lakshmimudranalaya, Bangalore.

[2]

www.wikipedia.org

[3]

http://www.gap-system.o rg /~histor y/Pr ojec ts/Pearc e/Chapte rs/

Ch8_3.html

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