Origin of Vedic Mathematics

Origins of Vedic Maths

Bharati Krishna Teerthaji got his revelations from a particular portion of the Atharvaveda called the Ganita Sutras . The Ganita Sutras are also calledSulba Sutras , “the easy mathematical formulae” , that’s the meaning of the expression. Now these texts were in Sanskrit and the grammar, the literature and the figures of speech in Sanskrit give great facility of expressing one’s dispositions in a number of different subjects but with the same set of words. Hence it becomes difficult for a person to understand the different layers of meanings encoded in one text.

Bharati Krishnaji underwent meditation for long years in the forest of Sringeri. He took the help of lexicographies, lexicons of earlier times, because as a language develops and comes in context with other languages words change their meaning. Words get additional meaning, words get deteroiorated in meaning. So Bharti Krishnaji studied old lexicons including Visva, Amara, Arnava, Sabdakalpardruma etc. With these he got the key in that way in one instance and one thing after another helped him in the elucidation of the other sutras (formulae).

It was to His Holiness’s extreme amazement that the sutras dealt with mathematics in all its branches. He realized only sixteen sutras cover all branches of mathematics – arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, physics, plain and spherical geometry, conics, calculus, both differential and integral, applied mathematics of various kinds, dynamics, hydrostatics, static, kinematics and all.

[From Vedic Metaphysics- by Bharati Krishna Teerthaji Maharaj]

Sources Given by His Holiness Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Sri Nischalanand Saraswati Maharaj of Shri Govardhana Matha Monastery (Puri, Orissa)

There is a sub-sutra Sisyate Sesasamjnah which translated into English means “Remainder remains constant”. His Holiness Jagadguru Swami Nischalanand ji has revealed with his divine grace that it belongs to Srimad Bhagavatam ( Bhagavata Purana) (10.3.25).

The line literally means “With the cosmos at its end after millions and millions of years when the primary elements merge with the subtle and everything manifested by the force of Time turns unmanifest, is Your Lordship, the One with the Many Names, the only one to remain.”

The mathematical meaning of this is “Remainders remains constant” i.e. as the divisor goes on increasing in a certain ratio, the quotient goes on decreasing, proportionately; but the remainder remains constant.

Lost volumes of Bharati Krishna Tirthaji

His Holiness Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Sri Nischalanand Saraswati Maharaj of Shri Govardhana Matha (Puri) has confirmed that the 15 remaining volumes have been destroyed, lost or stolen by foreigners. They were not kept by Bharati Krishnaji in Puri but at Nagpur from where the mammoth loss has been confirmed.

Reconstruction of the Lost Volumes

His Holiness Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Sri Nischalanand Saraswati Maharaj of Shri Govardhana Matha (Puri) has stated that after his research in two years time he would be working on assimilating and reconstructing the lost volumes of Bharati Krishna Teerthaji Maharaj. He would be also training a team of teachers who would be responsible to popularize Vedic Mathematics in the world. The reconstructed volume will be called ‘Vedikarsh Ganit’.

Currently His Holiness is doing research on Yoga sutras and thereafter he would be working on the lost volumes of Ganita Sutras of Bharti Krishna Teertha ji.

His Holiness has also written three books on Mathematics Swastika Ganita, Anka padiyam, and Ganita Darshan where he has taken vedic texts as core reference material.

In this regard we would like to state that research on Vedic Mathematics is continous, alive and progressing in Govardhan Matha under His Holiness Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Sri Nischalanand Saraswati Maharaj.