Algebra With Arithmetic And Mensuration From The Sanskrit Of Brahmagupta And Bhaskara

Henry Thomas Colebrooke  (1765 –  1837) was an English mathematician, who began to study the Sanskrit language after eleven years' residence in India. Colebrooke translated the work of Brahmagupta and Bashcara into English.

Brahmagupta, the head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjain and equally the foremost Indian mathematician of his time, wrote Brahmasphutasiddhanta in 628. In the Brahmasphutasiddhanta,  Brahmagupta defined zero as the result of subtracting a number from itself and gave some properties as follows:

... a number multiplied by zero becomes zero.

In the following, Bhaskara II or Bhaskaracharya, an Indian mathematician and astronomer, extended Brahmagupta's work on number systems. Bhaskaracharya realised  especially the problems related to  Brahmagupta's ideas of dividing by zero.  Bhaskaracharya proposed in Lilavati that (a.0)/0=a(a.0)/0=a.

Colebrooke's work is culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of human civilization.

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