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Manava
 
 
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Manava (c. 750 BC-690 BC) is the author of the India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
n geometric
Geometry

Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers....
 text of Sulba Sutras
Sulba Sutras

The Shulba Sutras or Sulbasutras are sutra texts belonging to the Srauta ritual and containing geometry related to fire-altar construction....
.

The Manava Sulbasutra is not the oldest (the one by Baudhayana
Baudhayana

Baudhayana, was an Indian mathematician, whowas most likely also a priest. He is noted as the author of the earliest Sulba Sutras — appendices to the Vedas giving rules for the construction of altars — called the , which contained several important mathematical results....
 is older), nor is it one of the most important, there being at least three Sulbasutras which are considered more important. Historians place his lifetime at around 750 BC.

Manava would have not have been a mathematician in the sense that we would understand it today.






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Manava (c. 750 BC-690 BC) is the author of the India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
n geometric
Geometry

Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers....
 text of Sulba Sutras
Sulba Sutras

The Shulba Sutras or Sulbasutras are sutra texts belonging to the Srauta ritual and containing geometry related to fire-altar construction....
.

The Manava Sulbasutra is not the oldest (the one by Baudhayana
Baudhayana

Baudhayana, was an Indian mathematician, whowas most likely also a priest. He is noted as the author of the earliest Sulba Sutras — appendices to the Vedas giving rules for the construction of altars — called the , which contained several important mathematical results....
 is older), nor is it one of the most important, there being at least three Sulbasutras which are considered more important. Historians place his lifetime at around 750 BC.

Manava would have not have been a mathematician in the sense that we would understand it today. Nor was he a scribe who simply copied manuscripts like Ahmes
Ahmes

Ahmes was an Egyptian scribe who lived during the Second Intermediate Period. A surviving work of Ahmes is part of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus now located in the British Museum ....
. He would certainly have been a man of very considerable learning but probably not interested in mathematics for its own sake, merely interested in using it for religious purposes. Undoubtedly he wrote the Sulbasutra to provide rules for religious rites and it would appear an almost certainty that Manava himself would be a Vedic
Historical Vedic religion

The religion of the Vedic period is the historical predecessor of Hinduism. Its liturgy is reflected in the Mantra portion of the four Vedas, which are compiled in Sanskrit....
 priest.

The mathematics given in the Sulbasutras is there to enable accurate construction of altars needed for sacrifices. It is clear from the writing that Manava, as well as being a priest, must have been a skilled craftsman.

Manava's Sulbasutra, like all the Sulbasutras, contained approximate constructions of circles from rectangles, and squares from circles, which can be thought of as giving approximate values of p. There appear therefore different values of p throughout the Sulbasutra, essentially every construction involving circles leads to a different such approximation. The paper [1] is concerned with an interpretation of verses 11.14 and 11.15 of Manava's work which give p = 25/8 = 3.125.

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